BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

•o- 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


ROUND   ABOUT 
THE   NORTH    POLE 


DONE  UP' 


Frontispiece 


ROUND  ABOUT 
THE    NORTH    POLE 


BY  W.  J.  GORDON 
M 


WITH   WOODCUTS   AND   OTHER    ILLUSTRATIONS 
BY  EDWARD  WHYMPER 


NEW  YORK 

E.   P.   BUTTON   AND   COMPANY 

31  WEST  TWENTY-THIRD  STREET 
1907 


Printed  in  Great  Britain 


PREFACE 

A^ONG  the  many  books  about  the  Polar  regions 
there  is  none  quite  like  this,  dealing  with  the 
gradual  progress  of  exploration  towards  the  north 
along  the  different  areas  of  advance  within  the  Arctic 
Circle. 

The  subject  is  always  interesting,  for  few  regions 
have  been  the  scene  of  more  persistent  effort  and 
exciting  adventure  and  unexpected  gains  from  the 
unknown,  particularly  in  the  earlier  days  when  the 
endeavour  to  find  the  northern  passages  to  the  east  and 
west  led  to  the  beginning  of  our  foreign  trade. 

It  is  often  asked,  "  What  is  the  use  of  further  Arctic 
discovery?"  No  one  knows.  Nor  did  anyone  know 
the  use  of  most  discoveries  before  they  were  made. 

When  Eric  landed  in  Greenland  he  was  not  in 
search  of  cryolite  for  aluminium.  When  Cabral  sailed 
to  Porto  Seguro  he  knew  nothing  of  the  incandescent 
gas-mantle.  When  Oersted  looped  the  live  wire  round 
the  magnetic  needle  he  was  not  bent  on  founding 
electrical  engineering.  And  when  Linnaeus  noticed 
the  sleep  of  plants  he  had  no  intention  of  providing 
a  substitute  for  a  clock  in  high  latitudes  where,  though 


vi  PREFACE 

the  sunshine  is  continuous  during  the  summer,  the 
plants  within  the  Circle  sleep  as  in  the  night  time, 
their  sleeping  leaves  telling  the  traveller  that  midnight 
is  at  hand. 

Men  have  made  up  their  minds  to  reach  the  Pole, 
and  thither  they  will  go.  What  they  will  find  when 
they  get  there  may  not  promise  to  be  much,  but  what 
they  have  found  round  about  it  has  been  enough  to 
influence  considerably  the  history  of  the  world. 

W.  J.  G. 

July,  1907. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER   I  PAGE 

SPITSBERGEN 1 

CHAPTER   II 

SPITSBERGEN  (continued) 24 

CHAPTER   III 
NOVAYA   ZEMLYA 49 

CHAPTER   IV 
FRANZ   JOSEF   LAND 64 

CHAPTER  V 
CAPE   CHELYUSKIN 84 

CHAPTER   VI 
THE   LENA   DELTA 106 

CHAPTER    VII 
BERING   STRAIT 127 

CHAPTER   VIII 
THE   AMERICAN   MAINLAND 146 

CHAPTER   IX 
THE   PARRY   ISLANDS 170 

CHAPTER   X 

BOOTHIA       .  190 


viii  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XI  PAGE 

BAFFIN    BAY          ....  .215 

CHAPTER   XII 
SMITH   SOUND 235 

CHAPTER   XIII 
GREENLAND 259 

INDEX  .         •         •         .287 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

"DONE  UP"  .  .  .  .  Frontispiece 

From  Nansen's  First  Crossing  of  Greenland  (Longmans) 

TO  FACE  PAGE 

THE  SUMMIT  OF  ORAEFA       .  .  .  ...         2 

From  a  photograph 

COLUMBUS  .  .  .  .  ...         4 

From  the  portrait  at  Versailles 

SAMOYEDS  AND  THEIR  DWELLINGS         .  .  .  10 

From  Hartwig's  Polar  World  (Longmans) 

FRANZ  JOSEF  FIORD  .  .  .  .  14 

From  a  drawing  by  Lieutenant  Julius  Payer 

WHALERS  AMONG  ICEBERGS  .  .  .  .  30 

From  Hartwig's  Polar  World  (Longmans) 

SIR  JOHN  FRANKLIN  .  .  .  .  34 

From  Le  Tour  du  Monde,  1860  (Hachette) 

TRACK  OF  H.M.S.  "DOROTHEA"  AND  "TRENT"  .  36 

From  A  Voyage  of  Discovery  towards  the  North  Pole,  performed  in  His  Majesty  s  Ships 
"Dorothea"  and  "  Trent"  under  the  command  of  C apt.  DavidBuchan,  R.N.,  1818, 
by  Capt.  F.  W.  Beechey,  R.N.,  F.R.S.  (Richard  Bentley,  1843.) 

PARRY  CAMPED  ON  THE  ICE  .  .  ...       40 

From  Captain  Parry's  Narrative,  1828  (Murray) 

PARRY'S  BOATS  AMONG  THE  HUMMOCKS  .  .  42 

From  Captain  Parry's  Narrative,  1828  (Murray) 

HOW    OUR    SHIP    STUCK    FAST    IN    THE    IcE  .  .  50 

From  A  True  Description,  by  Gerrit  de  Veer  (Hakluyt  Society,  1853) 

HOW    WE    NEARLY    GOT    INTO    TROUBLE    WITH    THE    SEA-HORSES  .  .          56 

From  A  True  Description,  by  Gerrit  de  Veer  (Hakluyt  Society,  1853) 

ADOLF  ERIK  NORDENSKIOLD  .  .  ...       90 

From  a  photograph 

FRIDTJOF  NANSEN  .  .  .  ...       96 

With  autograph.     From  a  photograph  supplied  by  himself 

REINDEER  .  .  .  .  ...     112 

By  permission.     From  Short  Stalks,  by  Edward  Buxton  (Stanford) 

SAMOYED  MAN       .  .  .  .  ...     114 

From  Seebohm's  Siberia  in  Asia  (Murray) 


x  LIST    OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

TO   FACE  PAGR 

OSTIAK  MAN          .  .  .  .  ...     116 

From  Seebobm's  Siberia  in  Asia  (Murray) 

THE  FACE  OP  THE  FUR  SEAL  .  .  ...     130 

From  The  Seal  Islands  of  Alaska,  by  Henry  W.  Elliott  (Washington,  1881) 

THE  ALEUTIAN  ISLANDS         .  .  .  ...     132 

From  Hartwig's  Polar  World  (Longmans).     From  an  original  Sketch  by  Frederick 
Whymper 

DRIVING  THE  FUR  SEAL        .  .  .  .  .     134 

From  The  Seal  Islands  of  Alaska,  by  Henry  W.  Elliott  (Washington,  1881) 

FUR  SEALS  AT  SEA  .  .  .  ...     136 

From  The  Seal  Islands  of  Alaska,  by  Henry  W.  Elliott  (Washington,  1881) 

THE  PARKA  OF  THE  ALASKAN  INNUITS  .  .  .         .138 

From  Whymper's  Alaska  (Sampson  Low) 

THE  FROZEN  YUKON  .  .  .  ...     140 

From  Whymper's  Alaska  (Sampson  Low) 

ASCENDING  THE  YUKON         .  .  .  ...     142 

From  Whymper's  Alaska  (Sampson  Low) 

MOOSE-HUNTING  ON  THE  YUKON  .  .  .  .     144 

From  Whymper's  Alaska  (Sampson  Low) 

MAHLEMUT  MAN   .  .  .  .  ...     146 

From  Whymper's  A  laska  (Sampson  Low) 

WINTER  TRAVELLING  ON  THE  GREAT  SLAVE  LAKE  .  .         .150 

From  Franklin  '$  Journey  to  the  Polar  Sea,  1819-22  (Murray,  1823) 

CROSSING  POINT  LAKE  .  .  .  .  .     152 

From  Franklin's  Journey  to  the  Polar  Sea,  1819-22  (Murray,  1823) 

KUTCHIN  INDIANS  .  .  .  .  .     154 

From  Hartwig's  Polar  World  (Longmans).     From  an  original  sketch  by  Frederick 
Whymper 

PREPARING  AN  ENCAMPMENT  ON  THE  BARREN  GROUNDS  .     .    .156 

From  Franklin's  Journey  to  the  Polar  Sea,  1819-22  (Murray,  1823) 

SIR  JOHN  RICHARDSON          .  .  .  .  158 

With  autograph,  from  a  letter  in  the  possession  of  Edward  Whymper 

BACK'S  JOURNEY  DOWN  THE  GREAT  FISH  RIVER  .  .         .     160 

From  Back's  Arctic  Land  Expedition  to  tJte  mouth  of  the  Great  Fish  River 
in  the  years  1833,  1834,  and  1835  (Murray,  1836) 

SIR  WILLIAM  EDWARD  PARRY  .  .  .  .     170 

With  autograph,  from  a  letter  in  the  possession  of  Edward  Whymper 

SIR  JOHN  BARROW  .  .  .  .  .     178 

With  autograph 

H.M.S.  "  HECLA  "  AND  " GRIPER"  IN  WINTER  HARBOUR  .         .     180 

From  A  Voyage  for  the  Discovery  of  a  North-west  Passage, 
by  Capt.  Parry  (Murray,  1821) 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  xi 

TO   FACE   PAGE 

PARRY'S  DISCOVERIES  ON  HIS  FIRST  VOYAGE       .  ...     182 

From  A  Voyage  for  the  Discovery  of  a  North-west  Passage ',  by  Captain  Parry 
(Murray,  1821) 

AN  IGLOOLIK  ESKIMO  CARRYING  HIS  KAYAK       .  ...     190 

From  Parry's  Second  Voyage  (Murray,  1824) 

PARRY'S  FARTHEST  ON  HIS  THIRD  VOYAGE          .  ...     192 

From  Parry's  Third  Voyage  (Murray,  1826) 

THE  "VICTORY"  .  .  .  .  ...     194 

From  Sir  J.  Ross's  Arctic  Expedition,  1829-33  (Webster,  1835) 

NORTH  HENDON     .  .  .  .  ...     196 

From  Sir  J.  Ross's  Arctic  Expedition,  1829-33  (Webster,  1835) 

ESKIMO   LISTENING   AT   A    SEAL-HOLE        .  .  .  .  198 

From  Parry's  Second  Voyage  (Murray,  1824) 

H.M.S.  "TERROR"  LIFTED  BY  ICE     .  .  .  .         .     202 

From  Hartwig's  Polar  World  (Longmans) 

FRACTURED  STERN-POST  OF  H.M.S.  "TERROR"  .  .     204 

From  Capt.  Back's  Narrative,  1838  (Murray) 

THE  "Fox"  ESCAPING  FROM  THE  PACK  .  ...     208 

From  M'Clintock's  Voyage  of  the  "  Fox  " 

THE  "Fox"  ON  A  ROCK       .  .  .  ...     210 

From  M'Clintock's  Voyage  of  the  '•''Fox" 

DISCOVERY  OF  THE  CAIRN     .  .  .  ...     212 

From  M'Clintock's  Voyage  of  the  "  Fox  " 

SIR  MARTIN  FROBISHER        .  .  .  .  216 

From  The  Three  Voyages  of  Martin  FrobisJier  (Hakluyt  Society,  1867) 

ESKIMO  AWAITING  A  SEAL     .  .  .  ...     222 

From  Hartwig's  Polar  World  (Longmans) 

A  GREENLANDER  IN  HIS  KAYAK          .  .  ...     224 

From  Le  Tour  du  Monde,  1868  (Hachette) 

BAFFIN  BAY  IN  1819  .  .  .  ...     232 

From  A  Voyage  of  Discovery,  by  Capt.  John  Ross  (Longmans,  1819) 

DR.  E.  K.  KANE  .  .  .  ...     234 

From  the  Frontispiece  to  Kane's  Arctic  Explorations,  1856 

KALUTUNAH  .  .  .  •  ...     236 

From  Le  Tour  du  Monde,  1868  (Hachette) 

THE  EAST  COAST  OF  SMITH  SOUND      .  .  ...     238 

From  Hayes'  Open  Polar  Sea  (Sampson  Low) 

DR.  I.  I.  HAYES  .  .  .  .  ...     240 

By  permission,  from  Hayes'  Open  Polar  Sea 


xii  LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

TO   KACB   PAGE 

THE  SHORES  OF  KENNEDY  CHANNEL   .  .  ...     242 

From  Hayes'  Open  Polar  Sea 

TYNDALL  GLACIER  .  .  244 

From  Hayes'  Open  Polar  Sea 

A  SEAL  IN  DANGER  .  .  .  ...     246 

From  Parry's  Second  Voyage  for  the  Discovery  of  a  North-west  Passage 
(Murray,  1824) 

SIR  GEORGE  NARES  .  .  .  ...     248 

From  a  photograph 

SLEDGES  USED  BY  SIR  LEOPOLD  M'CLINTOCK  AND  SIR  GEORGE  NARES  .     254 

(In  the  collection  of  Edward  Whymper) 

BISHOP  PAUL  EGEDE  .  .  .  ...     258 

From  the  Frontispiece  to  Efterretninger  om  Gronland  (Copenhagen) 

GREENLANDERS      .  .  .  .  ...     260 

From  Hartwig's  Polar  World  (Longmans) 

ON    LEVEL    GROUND  .  .  .  ...       262 

Nansen's  First  Crossing  of  Greenland  (Longmans) 

THE  ALLAN  LINER  " SARDINIAN"  AMONG  ICEBERGS  .  .         .     264 

From  a  photograph 

THE  "GERMANIA''  IN  THE  ICE  .  ...     266 

From  Le  Tour  du  Monde,  1874  (Hachette) 

THE  REGION  ROUND  MOUNT  PETERMANN  .  ...     268 

From  a  drawing  by  Lieutenant  Julius  Payer 

THE  LAST  DAYS  OF  THE  "HANSA"     .  .  ...     270 

From  Le  Tour  du  Monde,  1874  (Hachette) 

ROBERT  E.  PEARY  .  .  .  ...     280 

With  autograph,  from  a  letter  in  the  possession  of  Edward  Whymper 

From  Nearest  the  Pole,  by  Commander  Peary.     By  permission  of  Hutchinson  and  Co. 

SECTIONAL  MAPS 

1.  SPITSBERGEN     .  .  .  .  ...  12 

2.  CAPE  CHELYUSKIN  .  .  .  ...  84 

3.  THE  LENA  DELTA  .  .  .  .                       .  106 

4.  BERING  STRAIT  .  .  .  .                       .  128 

5.  THE  PARRY  ISLANDS  .  .  .  .                      .  174 

6.  GREENLAND       .  .  .  272 


ROUND  ABOUT 
THE    NORTH    POLE 


CHAPTER  I 
SPITSBERGEN 

Iceland  —  Greenland  —  America  —  Sebastian  Cabot  —  Robert  Thome  —  The 
North-east  Passage  —  Willoughby  —  Chancellor  —  Borough  —  The  North 
Cape  rounded  —  The  White  Sea  reached  —  The  First  Arctic  Search  Ex- 
pedition —  Pet  and  Jackman  —  Brunei  —  Cornelis  Nai—  Barents  reaches 
77°  20'  —  Second  voyage  of  Nai  —  The  Samoyeds  —  Rijp,  Jacob  Van 
Heemskerck  and  Barents  —  Bear  Island  discovered  —  Spitsbergen  dis- 
covered—The Dutch  reach  79°  49'—  Stephen  Bennet—  Welden—  Jonas 
Poole  —  Henry  Hudson  reaches  80°  23'  —  Poole  starts  the  British  whaling 
trade  —  Baffin's  voyages  to  Spitsbergen  —  Pellham  winters  at  Green 
Harbour. 


story  of  the  lands  within  the  Arctic  Circle  is 
JL  a  record  of  the  brave  deeds  of  healthy  men. 
This  would  seem  to  be  true  were  we  to  take  the  story, 
if  we  could,  back  to  the  days  when  man  followed  the 
retreat  of  the  glaciers,  as  he  may  in  turn  have  to  retreat 
before  them,  such  a  condition  of  things  being  not  beyond 
the  range  of  probability  though  it  may  be  remote.  For 
the  boundaries  of  the  frozen  north  are  not  dependent  on 
a  line  of  latitude,  and  have  never  been  the  same  from 
period  to  period,  or  even  from  year  to  year.  In  some 
cases  they  have  changed  considerably  within  the 


SPITSBERGEN 
Christian  era,  and  it  is  evident  that  the  ice  is  not 
eternal.  The  fossils  declare  that  the  climate  round 
the  North  Pole  has  varied  greatly,  and  must  in 
comparatively  recent  ages  have  been  comfortably 
warm,  so  genial  indeed  that  some  people  would  have 
us  believe  that  men  came  from  there  in  their  last  dis- 
tribution. Not,  however,  with  such  migrants  from 
the  far  north  do  we  concern  ourselves,  but  with  those 
who  have  endeavoured  to  get  there  in  historical  times 
by  different  lines  of  approach,  as  we  follow  the  circle 
round  from  east  to  west  and  note  the  record  of  each 
section  by  itself. 

Who  was  the  first  to  sail  to  the  northern  seas  we 
know  not.  Suffice  it  for  us  that  in  875  Ingolf  the 
jarl,  from  Norway,  refusing  to  live  under  the  sway  of 
Harold  Haarfager,  sighted  Mount  Oraefa.  As  he 
neared  the  coast,  overboard  went  the  carved  wood ; 
and  where  the  wood  drifted  ashore  he  founded  Reik- 
javik.  But  he  was  not  the  first  in  Iceland,  for  the 
Irish  monastery  had  been  there  for  years  when  he 
arrived,  though  the  monks  retired  to  their  old  country 
when  they  found  the  Norsemen  had  come  to  stay. 

Then  the  Icelander  Gunnbiorn,  driven  westward  in 
a  gale,  sighted  the  strange  land  he  called  White  Shirt 
from  its  snowfields,  which  Eric  the  Red,  following  a 
long  time  afterwards,  more  happily  renamed.  "  What 
shall  we  call  the  land  ? "  he  was  asked.  "  Call  it  Green 
Land,"  replied  Eric.  "  But  it  is  not  always  green  ! " 
"  It  matters  not :  give  it  a  good  name  and  people  will 
come  to  it ! " 

Then  the  Norsemen  worked  further  south.  In  986 
Bjarni  sighted  what  we  now  call  America,  and  in  1000 


From  a  photo 


THE   SUMMIT  OF  ORAEFA 


To  face  page  2 


GREENLAND  COLONISED  3 

came  the  voyage  of  Leif  Ericson,  who,  on  his  way 
down  the  mainland,  landing  again  and  again,  gave  the 
names  to  Helluland,  Markland,  Vinland — in  short, 
the  Viking  discovery  of  the  New  World. 

Greenland,  like  the  eastern  coast  of  the  continent, 
was  duly  colonised,  its  two  chief  settlements  being  one 
just  round  Cape  Farewell,  the  other  further  north  on 
the  same  coast.  In  those  days  the  island,  or  chain  of 
islands  beneath  an  ice-cap,  as  many  think  it  is,  would 
appear  to  have  had  a  milder  climate  than  it  has 
now.  The  colonies  throve,  their  population  becoming 
numerous  enough  to  require  a  series  of  seventeen 
bishops,  the  last  one  dying  about  1540,  to  superintend 
their  spiritual  welfare.  But  the  Eskimos,  in  their 
migration  from  Asia  across  the  Arctic  islands,  arrived 
in  the  country  before  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century  and  gradually  drove  the  Norsemen  down- 
wards, the  northern  colony  coming  to  an  end  in  1342 
owing  to  the  enemy  attacking  during  a  visitation  of 
the  Black  Death. 

Meanwhile  Iceland,  which  touches  the  Arctic  Circle 
in  its  northernmost  point,  and  extends  but  half  as  far 
south  of  it  as  Greenland,  increased  in  prosperity  as  a 
sort  of  aristocratic  republic,  and  produced  more  ver- 
nacular literature  than  any  country  in  Europe,  in  which, 
as  might  be  expected,  the  story  of  Greenland  and  the 
American  colonies  was  kept  so  well  to  the  fore  that 
it  became  as  familiar  among  the  people  as  a  nursery 
tale.  Thither,  from  Bristol,  in  February,  1477,  went 
Columbus ;  and  thence  it  was  he  returned  to  seek  a 
patron  for  his  western  voyage  across  the  Atlantic. 

The  first  voyage  of  Columbus  in  1492  gave  a  great 


4  SPITSBERGEN 

stimulus  to  maritime  discovery,  and  many  were  the 
projects  for  searching  the  seas  for  a  new  route  to  the 
east.  Of  these  the  most  important  was  that  sub- 
mitted to  Henry  VII  by  John  Cabot,  of  Bristol. 
Much  has  been  written,  on  slender  and  confusing 
evidence,  as  to  the  share  in  its  success  due  to  him  and 
to  his  son,  the  more  famous  Sebastian  ;  and,  to  be  brief, 
we  cannot  do  better  than  follow  Anderson,  who,  in  his 
Origin  of  Commerce,  ingeniously  evades  the  difficulty 
by  speaking,  commercially,  of  "Cabot  and  Sons." 
The  Bristol  firm,  then,  in  1497  despatched  their  ship 
Matthew  to  the  westward  and  discovered  and  took 
possession  of  Labrador  and  the  islands  and  peninsulas  in 
the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  the  district  being  at  first 
known  as  the  New  Found  Land,  a  name  afterwards 
restricted  to  the  largest  island.  And  they  had  their 
reward,  as  shown  in  the  Privy  Purse  accounts  of 
Henry  VII,  where  an  entry  of  the  10th  August,  1497, 
appears — "To  hym  that  found  the  new  isle,  £10." 
Surely  not  an  excessive  honorarium  for  the  finding  of 
a  continent. 

In  1498  another  voyage  of  the  same  ship  by  way  of 
Iceland,  in  which  some  attempt  seems  to  have  been 
made  to  colonise  the  newly  discovered  territories,  re- 
sulted in  the  discovery  of  Hudson  Strait  and  a  visit  to 
Labrador,  judging  by  the  finding  of  the  deer  in  herds, 
the  white  bears,  and  the  Eskimos  who  are  not  known 
to  have  ever  crossed  into  the  island  of  Newfoundland. 
This  was  not  the  only  English  vessel  to  appear  in 
these  parts  at  that  time,  for  in  the  same  year  the  Privy 
Purse  accounts  record  a  gift  of  £30  to  Thomas  Bradley 
and  Launcelot  Thirkill  for  going  to  the  New  Isle, 


COLUMBUS 


To  face  page  4 


THE  FIRST  NORTH-EAST  VOYAGE  5 

adding  that  Launcelot  had  already  received  £20  "  as 
preste  "  for  his  ship  going  there. 

It  is  evident  that  the  fisheries  were  found  to  be 
worth  working,  for  no  less  than  fifty  Spanish,  French, 
and  Portuguese  ships  were  engaged  in  them  in  1517, 
the  year  of  Sebastian  Cabot's  disputed  voyage  to 
Hudson  Bay.  Ten  years  afterwards  Robert  Thorne,  of 
Bristol,  wrote  to  the  King,  mentioning  this  voyage  and 
suggesting  three  sea  routes  to  Cathay — by  the  north- 
west, as  Sebastian  had  attempted,  by  the  north  over 
the  Pole,  and  by  the  north-east — and,  in  1547,  when 
Sebastian  returned  to  England  for  good,  after  his  long 
service  with  Spain,  he  again,  as  the  first  Governor  of 
the  Company  of  Merchant  Adventurers,  took  up  this 
Cathay  question,  which  had  frequently  been  raised, 
and  fitted  out,  as  a  commencement,  an  expedition  to 
the  north-east. 

The  ships  were  built  at  Bristol  specially  for  the 
purpose,  and  they  were  sheathed  with  lead,  the  first 
so  treated  in  this  country.  This  sheathing  of  ships  was 
not  the  only  innovation  we  owe  to  the  most  scientific 
seaman  of  his  time,  for  in  his  famous  ordinances  for  the 
voyage  many  excellent  new  things  are  enjoined,  in- 
cluding the  keeping  of  a  log  and  journal,  which  date 
from  this  expedition.  There  were  three  vessels,  the 
Bona  Esperanza,  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  tons, 
Captain  Sir  Hugh  Willoughby;  the  Edward  Bona- 
venture,  one  hundred  and  sixty  tons,  Captain  Richard 
Chancellor ;  and  the  Bona  Confidential,  ninety  tons, 
Captain  Durfourth.  In  Chancellor's  ship,  as  master, 
was  the  best  navigator  of  the  fleet,  whose  monu- 
mental brass  in  Chatham  Church  is  noteworthy  for  its 


6  SPITSBERGEN 

epitaph :  "  Here  lieth  buried  the  bodie  of  Steven 
Borough,  who  departed  this  life  ye  xij  day  of  July  in 
ye  yere  of  our  Lord  1584,  and  was  borne  at  Northam 
in  Devonshire  ye  xxvth  of  Septemb.  1525.  He  in  his 
life  time  discouered  Moscouia,  by  the  North  erne  sea 
passage  to  St.  Nicholas,  in  the  yere  1553.  At  his 
setting  foorth  of  England  he  was  accompanied  with 
two  other  shippes,  Sir  Hugh  Willobie  being  Admirell  of 
the  fleete,  who,  with  all  the  company  of  ye  said  two 
shippes,  were  frozen  to  death  in  Lappia  ye  same 
winter.  After  his  discouerie  of  Roosia,  and  ye 
Coastes  thereto  adioyninge — to  wit,  Lappia,  Nova 
Zemla,  and  the  Countrie  of  Samoyeda,  etc. :  he  fre- 
quented ye  trade  to  St.  Nicholas  yearlie,  as  chief  pilot 
for  ye  voyage,  until  he  was  chosen  of  one  of  ye  foure 
principall  Masters  in  ordinarie  of  ye  Queen's  Maties 
royall  Nauy,  where  in  he  continued  in  charge  of 
sundrie  sea  services  till  time  of  his  death." 

The  ships  left  in  May,  but  did  not  remain  long 
together.  On  the  2nd  of  August  Willoughby  and 
Durfourth  separated  from  Chancellor  in  a  storm  off 
the  Lofodens,  and  after  devious  courses,  that  might 
have  led  anywhere,  were  frozen  in  on  the  coast  of 
Lapland,  where  they  wintered  and  died,  as  did  all  the 
men  with  them.  Chancellor,  having  waited  at  the 
rendezvous  in  vain,  crossed  the  Arctic  Circle,  rounded 
the  North  Cape — so  named  by  Borough — and  found 
his  way  into  the  White  Sea.  While  his  ship  was  in 
winter  quarters  near  where  Archangel  now  is,  he  made 
a  sledge  journey  to  the  Czar  at  Moscow,  which  led 
to  the  formation  of  the  Muscovy  Company  and  the 
beginning  of  England's  Russian  trade;  and  through 


THE   FIRST  ARCTIC   SEARCH   EXPEDITION        7 

his  meeting  there  with  the  Persian  Ambassador  came 
about  the  mission  of  Anthony  Jenkinson  to  the  Shah, 
which  opened  up  for  us  the  Persian  trade.  Never  was 
a  voyage  more  successful.  With  it  began  the  foreign 
commerce  of  this  country,  and  from  it  dates  the  rise 
of  our  mercantile  marine. 

In  1556  Borough,  in  the  Searchthrift,  persevered 
further  east,  and,  passing  between  Novaya  Zemlya  and 
Waigatz  Island,  through  the  strait  that  bears  his  name 
spelt  differently,  entered  the  Kara  Sea.  Next  year  in 
the  same  ship  he  was  given  the  command  of  the  first 
Arctic  Search  Expedition,  its  object  being  to  discover 
what  had  become  of  Willoughby.  Of  one  ship,  the 
Confidcntic^  he  obtained  news  in  an  interview  with  a 
man  who  had  bought  her  sails,  but  the  full  story  of 
the  disastrous  end  of  the  voyage  remained  a  mystery 
until  the  Russians  found  the  ships  and  bodies  and 
Willoughby 's  journal,  and  took  the  ships  round  to  the 
Dwina.  Then  for  the  first  time  did  people  realise 
what  it  meant  to  battle  with  an  Arctic  winter  without 
preparation,  and  many  were  those  who  withdrew  their 
interest  in  the  frozen  north,  preferring  tropical  dangers 
to  the  possibility  of  such  accumulating  miseries  as  the 
journal  records  in  due  order  in  its  matter-of-fact  way, 
its  last  entry  being  the  terribly  suggestive — "  Unknowen 
and  most  wonderful  wild  beasts  assembling  in  fearful 
numbers  about  the  ships." 

With  Stephen  Borough  in  the  Chancellor  voyage 
was  Arthur  Pet — or  Pett,  a  name  not  unknown  in  the 
navy — who,  after  two  centuries,  has  become  notable 
again  through  a  strange  discovery.  In  search  of  the 
much-desired  passage  by  the  north-east  he  sailed  from 


8  SPITSBERGEN 

Harwich  on  the  31st  of  May,  1580,  in  the  George,  of 
forty  tons,  accompanied  by  Charles  Jackman,  in  the 
William,  of  twenty  tons.  His  orders  were  to  avoid 
the  open  sea  and  keep  the  coast  in  sight  all  the  way 
out  on  the  starboard  side,  and  William  Borough- 
Stephen's  brother,  afterwards  Comptroller  of  the  Navy 
— gave  him  certain  instructions  and  notes. 

Arranging  with  Jackman,  whose  little  vessel  sailed 
badly,  to  wait  for  him  at  Waigatz,  Pet  went  ahead 
and  endeavoured  to  pass  through  Burrough  Strait,  but 
meeting  with  trouble  from  the  ice,  missed  the  passage, 
and  working  round  Waigatz  to  the  south,  entered  the 
Kara  Sea  through  Yugor  Strait,  or  as  it  used  to  be 
called  after  him,  Pet  Strait.  Coasting  eastward  with 
the  mainland  in  sight,  he  was,  as  might  be  expected, 
much  hampered  by  the  heavy  pack.  On  being  joined 
by  the  little  William  he  made  for  the  northward,  seek- 
ing a  way  to  the  east,  but  the  "  more  and  thicker  was 
the  ice  so  that  they  could  go  no  further,"  and,  after 
talking  the  matter  over  on  the  28th  of  July,  Pet  and 
Jackman  reluctantly  decided  to  return  to  Waigatz 
and  there  decide  on  what  should  be  done. 

Their  way  back  was  difficult.  They  became  shut  in 
so  that  "  they  could  not  stir,  labouring  only  to  defend 
the  ice  as  it  came  upon  them."  For  one  day  they 
were  clear  of  it,  but  next  day,  the  16th  of  August, 
they  were  encumbered  again,  though  they  got  out  of 
the  trouble  by  sailing  between  the  ice  and  the  shore, 
which  was  a  new  experience.  In  this  way  they  just 
scraped  through  Pet  Strait,  and  bore  away  in  the  open 
sea  to  Kolguiev,  both  vessels  grounding  for  a  time  on 
the  sands  to  the  south  of  that  island.  On  the  22nd  of 


THE  FIRST  DUTCH  VOYAGE  9 

August,  two  days  afterwards,  the  William  parted  from 
the  George  in  a  dense  fog,  while  Pet  brought  his  ship 
home  and  dropped  anchor  at  Ratcliff  on  Boxing  Day. 

The  Dutch  had  for  some  time  been  trying  to  out- 
strip the  English  on  this  route  to  the  far  east.  In 
1565  they  had  settled  at  Kola,  and  about  thirteen 
years  afterwards  had  established  the  factory  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Dwina  on  the  site  of  Nova  Kholmo- 
gory,  generally  known  as  Archangel.  In  1584  Olivier 
Brunei,  their  energetic  emissary  in  Russia,  sailed  on 
the  first  Dutch  Arctic  discovery  expedition.  He  tried 
in  vain  to  pass  through  Pet  Strait,  and  the  ship,  with 
a  valuable  cargo  of  furs  and  mica,  was  wrecked  on  its 
homeward  voyage  at  the  mouth  of  the  Petchora. 

Ten  years  elapsed,  and  then  there  sailed  from  the 
Texel  the  expedition  of  Cornelis  Nai,  in  which  the 
Mercury,  of  Amsterdam,  was  commanded  by  Willem 
Barents.  Barents — really  Barentszoon,  the  son  of 
Bernard — sighted  Novaya  Zemlya,  with  which  his  name 
was  to  be  thenceforth  associated,  on  the  4th  of  July, 
and  coasting  along  its  mighty  cliffs,  peopled  with  their 
myriad  seabirds,  passed  Cape  Nassau  ten  days  later. 
Thence  reaching  77°  20',  and  thus  improving  on  John 
Davis's  record  for  the  highest  north,  he  struggled 
through  the  ice  to  the  Orange  Islands  and  back,  some 
twenty-five  miles,  during  which  he  tacked  eighty-one 
times  and  thereby  sailed  some  seventeen  hundred  geo- 
graphical miles.  Failing  to  proceed  further,  he  came 
south,  and  off  Pet  Strait — named  by  the  Dutchmen 
Nassau  Strait — fell  in  with  the  other  two  ships  returning 
from  their  unsuccessful  attempt  to  cross  the  Kara  Sea. 

Next  year  a  fleet  of  seven  vessels  under  Nai  left  the 


10  SPITSBERGEN 

Mars  Diep  on  another  endeavour  to  get  through  to 
China.  One  of  the  two  chief  commissioners  on  board 
was  the  famous  Van  Linschoten,  who  had  been  on  the 
previous  voyage,  and  the  chief  pilot  was  Barents,  who 
was  in  the  Winthont  (Greyhound)  with  Jacob  van 
Heemskerck  as  supercargo.  Arriving  at  Pet  Strait 
they  found  it  so  blocked  with  ice  that  no  passage  was 
possible,  and  Barents,  in  search  of  information,  went 
ashore  on  the  mainland  south  of  the  strait  and  made 
friends — in  a  way — with  the  Samoyeds,  whose  appear- 
ance, as  described  by  Gerrit  de  Veer,  was  "  like  that  of 
wild  men,"  dressed  as  they  were  in  deerskins  from  head 
to  foot,  those  of  importance  wearing  caps  of  coloured 
cloth  lined  with  fur ;  for  the  most  part  short  of  stature, 
with  broad  flat  faces,  small  eyes,  and  bow  legs ;  their 
hair  worn  long,  plaited,  and  hanging  down  their  backs. 
They  were  evidently  suspicious  of  the  Dutchmen, 
who  did  their  best  to  be  friendly.  The  chief  had 
placed  sentinels  all  round  to  see  what  the  new-comers 
were  about  and  note  everything  that  was  bought  and 
sold.  One  of  the  sentinels  was  offered  a  biscuit,  which 
"  he  with  great  thanks  took  and  ate,  and  while  he  ate 
it  he  still  looked  diligently  about  him  on  all  sides, 
watching  what  was  done."  Their  reindeer  sledges  were 
kept  ready — "that  run  so  swiftly  with  one  or  two 
men  in  them  that  our  horses  were  not  able  to  follow 
them."  They  were  unacquainted  with  firearms,  and, 
when  a  musket  was  fired  to  impress  them,  "ran  and 
leapt  like  madmen,"  but  calmed  down  as  soon  as  they 
saw  there  was  no  malicious  intention,  to  wonder  much 
more,  however,  when  the  man  with  the  gun  aimed  at  a 
flat  stone  he  placed  as  a  mark,  and,  fortunately,  hit  and 


SAMOYEDS  AND  THEIR  DWELLINGS 


To  face  page  10 


THE  DUTCHMEN  AND  THE  SAMOYEDS  11 
broke  it.  The  meeting  ended  satisfactorily;  "after  that 
we  took  our  leaves  one  of  the  other  with  great  friend- 
ship on  both  sides,  and  when  we  were  in  our  pinnace 
we  all  put  off  our  hats  and  bowed  to  them,  sounding 
our  trumpet;  they  in  their  manner  saluting  us  also, 
and  then  went  to  their  sledges  again." 

Barents  was  by  no  means  convinced  that  the  strait 
was  impassable,  and  held  out  against  the  opinion  of 
the  others  for  some  days,  but  with  the  firm  ice 
stretching  round  in  all  directions  he  had  to  give  in, 
and  on  the  15th  of  September  the  fleet  began  the 
voyage  home.  Much  had  been  expected,  and  the  re- 
sult was  so  conspicuous  a  failure  that  the  States 
General  abandoned  any  further  attempt  at  a  north- 
east passage  on  their  own  account,  but  decided  to 
offer  a  reward  to  any  private  expedition  that  proved 
successful.  Whereupon  the  authorities  and  merchants 
of  Amsterdam  fitted  out  two  vessels  for  a  third 
voyage,  giving  the  command  of  one  to  Jan  Corne- 
liszoon  Rijp,  and  that  of  the  other  to  Jacob  van 
Heemskerck,  with  Barents  as  chief  pilot. 

The  ships  left  the  Dutch  coast  on  the  18th  of  May. 
Four  days  afterwards  they  were  off  the  Shetlands, 
going  north-east.  On  the  9th  of  June  they  discovered 
an  island,  on  which  they  landed.  Here  they  saw  a 
prodigious  white  bear,  which  they  went  after  in  a  boat, 
intending  to  slip  a  noose  over  her  neck,  but  when  they 
were  near  her  she  looked  so  strong  that  their  courage 
failed,  and  they  returned  to  the  ships  to  fetch  more 
men,  and  what  seems  to  have  been  quite  an  armoury 
of  "muskets,  harquebusses,  halberds  and  hatchets." 
Accompanied  by  another  boat  they  attacked  this 


12  SPITSBERGEN 

formidable  beast  for  over  two  hours,  one  of  them 
getting  an  axe  into  her  back,  with  which  she  swam 
away  until  she  was  caught  and  had  her  head  split  open 
by  another  blow  from  an  axe.  From  this  remarkable 
bear,  whose  skin,  we  are  told,  was  twelve  feet  long, 
the  island  was  named  Bear  Island. 

Continuing  northwards  they  sighted,  on  the  19th  of 
June,  Spitsbergen,  which  they  supposed  to  be  Green- 
land— an  error  that  led  to  much  confusion — and  on 
the  21st  of  June  they  landed  and  had  another  trying 
time  with  a  bear,  whose  skin  proved  to  be  thirteen 
feet  long.  On  one  island  of  the  cluster  they  found 
the  eggs  of  the  barnacle  goose,  Bernicla  leucopsis, 
whose  nesting  ground  was  up  to  then  unknown,  and 
on  others  they  saw  reindeer,  for  in  this  land  "there 
groweth  leaves  and  grass."  Returning  to  Bear  Island 
after  attaining  79°  49',  some  hundred  and  seventy 
miles  higher  north  than  in  1594,  Rijp  departed  for  the 
north  again,  and,  failing  to  get  beyond  Bird  Cape, 
went  home  to  Holland  by  way  of  Kola ;  and  to  Kola 
he  came  back  the  year  afterwards. 

In  1603,  following  the  Dutch,  came  Stephen  Bennet 
to  call  Bear  Island  Cherie  Island,  after  his  patron,  and 
find  the  walruses  in  thousands  and  the  birds  in  millions. 
A  rocky  tableland  of  mountain  limestone  and  car- 
boniferous sandstone,  with  the  usual  fossils  in  unusual 
numbers  and  a  few  coal  seams  in  between  ;  the  ravines 
faced  and  floored  with  fragments  of  every  dimension 
and  shape,  split  off  by  the  frost  and  weathered  by 
wind  and  rain :  a  grey,  grassless,  monotonous  country, 
except  along  the  coast,  where  the  guano  from  the  vast 
numbers  of  seabirds  has  coated  the  crannies  and  ledges 


SPITSBERGEN 


100  200  300  400  500 


To  face  page  12 


BEAR    ISLAND  IS 

of  the  cliffs,  that  tower  up  perhaps  four  hundred 
feet  from  the  water,  with  a  thin  layer  of  soil  in  which 
the  scurvy-grass  and  a  few  other  plants  thrive  amaz- 
ingly, though  the  island's  complete  flora  contains  but 
forty  species — such  is  Bear  Island,  the  stepping-stone 
to  Spitsbergen,  of  which  Jonas  Poole  took  possession 
in  1609  for  the  Muscovy  Company. 

Lying  east  of  the  influence  of  the  Gulf  Stream, 
the  range  of  temperature  is  of  the  widest.  Often 
the  island  is  unapproachable  owing  to  the  ice,  some- 
times it  is  even  now  as  hot  as  Welden  found  it  in  1608, 
when,  in  June,  "the  pitch  did  run  down  the  ship's 
sides,  and  that  side  of  the  masts  that  was  to  the  sun- 
ward was  so  hot  that  the  tar  did  fry  out  of  it  as 
though  it  had  boiled."  That  was  a  great  year  for 
Welden,  for  he  killed  a  thousand  walruses  in  less  than 
seven  hours  and  took  a  young  one  home  with  him, 
"where  the  king  and  many  honourable  personages 
beheld  it  with  admiration,  the  like  whereof  had  never 
before  been  seen  alive  in  England." 

Poole  did  much  useful  work  in  these  seas,  but  is  now 
little  heard  of,  most  of  the  surviving  interest  in  such 
matters  being  concentrated  on  Henry  Hudson,  who 
was  in  the  same  service  at  the  same  time.  Hudson 
was,  perhaps,  a  grandson  of  Alderman  Henry  Hudson, 
one  of  the  founders  of  the  Muscovy  Company,  but 
nothing  is  really  known  of  him  beyond  his  being  a 
captain  in  the  Muscovy  Company,  who,  on  the  19th  of 
April,  1607,  took  the  sacrament  at  St.  Ethelburga's, 
in  Bishopsgate  Street,  with  his  son  and  crew  "  and  the 
rest  of  the  parishioners."  That  he  was  a  parishioner 
may  be  true,  but  that  all  the  ten  members  of  the  crew 


14  SPITSBERGEN 

were  so  is  unlikely.  Anyhow,  they  were  outward 
bound  for  Japan  and  China  by  way  of  the  North  Pole, 
and  sailed  from  Gravesend  on  the  1st  of  May. 

Where  he  went  is  not  clear  in  detail,  as  his  latitudes 
are  seldom  correct  and  his  longitudes  are  not  recorded. 
He  sighted  Greenland  north  of  Iceland,  and,  shouldered 
off  by  the  ice  barrier,  left  it  somewhere  about  Franz 
Josef  Fjord,  working  easterly  by  the  edge  of  the 
ice  to  Spitsbergen.  Here  he  sailed  round  Prince 
Charles's  Foreland  and  went  north,  passing  Hakluyt 
Headland,  which  he  named,  reaching  on  the  13th  of 
July,  80°  23',  "  by  observation."  He  saw  many  whales, 
but  found  his  way  blocked  by  ice ;  and  after  many 
attempts,  assuring  himself  that  there  was  no  passage 
hereabouts  to  the  north,  sailed  southwards  for  Bear 
Island.  On  leaving  this  he  seems  to  have  gone  west, 
possibly  to  the  coast  of  Greenland  again,  for  on  his 
way  home  he  lighted  upon  Hudson's  Touches,  now 
known  as  Jan  Mayen  Island,  the  principal  cape  of 
which  bears  the  name  of  Hudson's  Point — which  may 
be  either  Hudson's  or  Rudston's  (after  the  Rudston 
mentioned  in  Baffin's  fourth  voyage) — while  another  is 
known  as  Young's  Foreland,  perhaps  after  the  James 
Young  who  was  the  first  in  the  ship  to  sight  the  coast 
of  Greenland  on  the  outward  journey.  He  dropped 
anchor  in  the  Thames  on  the  15th  of  September  all 
well.  He  had  not  crossed  the  Pole,  nor  did  he  find 
Spitsbergen  stretching  up  to  82°,  as  he  said,  its  most 
northerly  point  being  miles  further  south ;  but  he 
had  gone  beyond  Van  Heemskerck's  furthest  north  and 
found  a  fishing  ground  for  whales  and  walruses  which 
proved  of  great  commercial  value. 


FRANZ  JOSEF   FIORD 


To  ace  page  14 


THE   WHALING   TRADE   BEGINS  15 

In  1610,  Poole,  finding  that  he  could  not  land  on 
Bear  Island  owing  to  the  ice,  stood  away  to  the  north- 
west, reached  Spitsbergen,  and  worked  along  the 
western  side  to  Hakluyt  Headland,  where  the  ice 
barred  further  advance.  On  his  way  up  and  down  the 
coast  he  gave  many  of  the  capes  and  bays  the  names 
they  still  bear,  and  generally  did  so  well  that  on  his 
return  he  was  put  in  the  place  of  Hudson,  who  had 
left  the  service  two  years  before,  and  made  a  sort  of 
special  commissioner  by  the  Muscovy  Company  "for 
certain  years  upon  a  stipend  certain  "  to  make  further 
discoveries  round  Spitsbergen  and  to  ascertain  whether 
there  was  an  open  sea  further  northward  than  had 
already  been  found.  In  addition  to  searching  for  the 
open  polar  sea,  he  was  to  convoy  the  Mary  Margaret, 
in  which  were  six  Biscay ners  "  expert  in  the  killing  of 
the  whale,"  to  Bear  Island,  and  thence  to  Whale  Bay  in 
Spitsbergen.  In  short,  Poole  was  to  start  the  British 
whaling  trade,  the  Mary  Margaret  being  the  first 
British  vessel  to  be  employed  in  that  lucrative  but 
hazardous  occupation ;  and  she  was  under  the  com- 
mand of  Thomas  Edge,  whose  name  is  borne  by 
Edge's  Island. 

The  beginning  was  so  promising  that  in  1613,  two 
years  afterwards,  a  fleet  of  seven  vessels  went  out  to  take 
part  in  the  fishery  and  clear  away  the  foreigners  who 
had  come  to  share  in  the  good  fortune ;  the  company 
claiming  the  islands  on  the  ground  of  their  purely 
imaginary  discovery  by  Willoughby,  the  Dutch  resting 
their  claim  on  the  real  discovery  by  Van  Heemskerck. 
In  this  fleet  as  chief  pilot  was  William  Baffin — his 
second  recorded  voyage.  By  him,  who  as  usual  kept 


16  SPITSBERGEN 

his  eyes  open,  we  have  the  first  description  of  the 
Spitsbergen  glaciers.  He  was  at  the  time — the  29th  of 
July — in  Green  Harbour  in  Ice  Fjord.  "  One  thing 
more  I  observed,"  he  says,  "in  this  harbour  which  I 
have  thought  good  also  to  set  down.  Purposing  on  a 
time  to  walk  towards  the  mountains,  I,  and  two  more 
of  my  company,  ascended  up  a  long  plain  hill,  as  we 
supposed  it  to  be  ;  but  having  gone  a  while  upon  it,  we 
perceived  it  to  be  ice.  Notwithstanding  we  proceeded 
higher  up,  about  the  length  of  half  a  mile,  and  as  we 
went  saw  many  deep  rifts  or  gutters  on  the  land  of  ice, 
which  were  cracked  down  through  to  the  ground,  or,  at 
the  least,  an  exceeding  great  depth  ;  as  we  might  well 
perceive  by  hearing  the  snow  water  run  below,  as  it 
does  oftentimes  in  a  brook  whose  current  is  somewhat 
opposed  with  little  stones.  But  for  better  satisfaction 
I  brake  down  some  pieces  of  ice  with  a  staff  I  had 
in  my  hand,  which  in  their  falling  made  a  noise  on 
each  side  much  like  to  a  piece  of  glass  thrown  down 
the  well  within  Dover  Castle,  whereby  we  did  estimate 
the  thickness  or  height  of  this  ice  to  be  thirty  fathoms. 
This  huge  ice,  in  my  opinion,  is  nothing  but  snow, 
which  from  time  to  time  has  for  the  most  part  been 
driven  off  the  mountains ;  and  so  continuing  and  in- 
creasing all  the  time  of  winter  (which  may  be  counted 
three-quarters  of  the  year)  cannot  possibly  be  con- 
sumed with  the  thaw  of  so  short  a  summer,  but  is  only 
a  little  dissolved  to  moisture,  whereby  it  becomes  more 
compact,  and  with  the  quick  succeeding  frost  is  con- 
gealed to  a  firm  ice." 

Next  year  he  was  out  again  in  the  Thomasine,  one  of 
a  fleet  of  thirteen  vessels,  and  in  endeavouring  to  pass 


BAFFIN   ON   GLACIERS  17 

to  the  north-east,  reached  Wijde  Bay,  where  at  the 
point  of  the  beach  at  the  entrance  he  "  set  up  a  cross 
and  nailed  a  sixpence  thereon  with  the  king's  arms," 
probably  the  neatest  property  mark  in  history.  Thence 
he  went  on  to  the  entrance  to  Hinlopen  Strait,  complet- 
ing the  journey  along  the  north  of  the  main  island.  It 
was  on  this  voyage  that  he  endeavoured  to  find  his 
longitudes  by  observing  the  moon,  for  Baffin  was  the 
first  who  attempted  to  take  a  lunar  at  sea. 

Year  by  year  the  fishery  increased,  and  the  whale 
fishers  multiplied  as  if  the  sea  were  a  goldfield,  the 
monopoly  being  respected  until  1618,  when  the  Dutch, 
who  had  all  along  prospered  more  than  the  rest,  proved 
too  strong  for  the  English,  and  a  compromise  was 
arrived  at  by  which  the  different  harbours  were 
allotted  to  the  different  nations  for  the  processes 
necessary  in  the  preparation  of  the  whale  products  for 
shipment.  But  it  was  purely  a  summer  industry. 
There  was  no  colony,  and  it  did  not  seem  as  though 
there  would  be  one,  for  no  man  willing  to  winter  in 
the  place  could  be  found.  Vainly  were  rewards  offered 
to  those  who  would  venture.  In  the  north  was  the 
ever-present  barrier  of  ice,  more  distant  some  years 
than  others,  but  always  there  to  come  south  and  hold 
the  islands  in  its  grip  when  the  fishery  was  over,  and 
those  who  came  early  and  those  who  stayed  late  saw 
enough  of  the  wintry  landscape  to  make  them  doubt 
if  life  were  possible  under  such  conditions. 

Then  the  idea,  not  new  to  Englishmen,  that  colonies 
should  be  started  by  criminals,  was  acted  upon,  and 
the  Muscovy  Company  procured  the  reprieve  of  a 
batch  of  prisoners  under  sentence  of  death  and  landed 


18  SPITSBERGEN 

them  in  Spitsbergen  under  promise  of  a  free  pardon, 
a  handsome  reward,  and  full  provisions  and  suitable 
clothes  if  they  would  remain  there  for  a  continuous 
twelve  months.  But,  as  the  ship  that  brought  them 
was  preparing  to  return  to  London,  "they  conceived 
such  a  horror  and  inward  fear  in  their  hearts"  that 
they  besought  the  captain  to  take  them  back  that  they 
might  be  hanged  rather  than  perish  amid  such  desola- 
tion ;  and  the  captain  "  being  a  pitiful  and  a  merciful 
gentleman,  would  not  by  force  constrain  them  to  stay," 
and  brought  them  home  again,  when  the  company — 
who  could  do  no  less — procured  them  a  pardon.  One 
captain — of  a  different  disposition — had  left  nine  men 
behind  him,  all  of  whom  perished  miserably ;  and 
another,  in  1630,  left  eight  others,  apparently  through 
causes  beyond  his  control,  whose  adventure  was  to 
form  one  of  the  most  interesting  episodes  in  Arctic 
story. 

It  was  on  the  15th  of  August  in  that  year  that  the 
Salutation  sent  Edward  Pellham  and  his  seven  com- 
panions ashore  to  kill  reindeer  for  the  ship's  provisions 
on  her  voyage  home.  Taking  with  them  two  dogs,  a 
snap-hance,  two  lances,  and  a  tinder-box,  they  landed 
near  Black  Point,  between  Green  Harbour  and  Bell 
Sound,  and,  "laying  fourteen  tall  and  nimble  deer 
along,"  camped  for  the  night.  During  the  night 
the  weather  changed  and  brought  in  the  ice  between 
the  shore  and  the  ship,  and  in  the  morning  the  ship 
had  gone.  The  boat's  crew  made  for  Green  Harbour, 
thinking  she  would  put  in  there  to  pick  them  up,  but 
she  failed  to  appear,  being  due  to  leave  the  country  in 
three  days,  and  after  a  fruitless  attempt  to  catch  her  at 


PELLHAM'S   WINTER   QUARTERS  19 

Bell  Sound,   they  eventually  took  up   their  quarters 
there  on  the  3rd  of  September. 

Here  was  one  of  the  so-called  tents  of  the  whale- 
fishers.     "This,"   says  Pellham,   "which   we   call   the 
tent,  was  a  kind  of  house  built  of  timber  and  boards 
very  substantially,  and  covered  with  Flemish  tiles,  by 
the  men  of  which  nation  it  had  in  the  time  of  their 
trading  thither  been  built.     Four-score  foot  long  it  is 
and  in  breadth  fifty.    The  use  of  it  was  for  the  coopers, 
employed  for  the  service  of  the  company,  to  work, 
lodge,  and  live  in,  all  the  while  they  make  casks  for  the 
putting  up  of  the  train  oil."     As  this  was  too  large  for 
their  comfort,  they  very  sensibly  built  another  within 
it.     "  Taking  down  another  lesser  tent  therefore  (built 
for  the  landmen  hard  by  the  other,  wherein  they  lay 
whilst  they  made  their  oil),  from  thence  we  fetched  our 
materials.     That  tent  furnished  us  with  one  hundred 
and  fifty  deal  boards,  besides  posts  or  stanchions  and 
rafters.     From  three  chimneys  of  the  furnaces  wherein 
they  used  to  boil  their  oil,  we  brought  a  thousand 
bricks :   there  also  found  we  three  hogsheads  of  very 
fine  lime,  of  which  stuff  we  also  fetched  another  hogs- 
head from  Bottle  Cove,  on  the  other  side  of  the  sound, 
some  three  leagues  distant.     Mingling  this  lime  with 
the  sand  of  the  sea-shore,  we  made  very  excellent  good 
morter  for  the  laying  of  our  bricks :   falling  to  work 
thereon,  the  weather  was  so  extreme  cold  as  that  we 
were  fain  to  make  two  fires  to  keep  our  morter  from 
freezing.     William  Fakely  and  myself,  undertaking  the 
masonry,  began  to  raise  a  wall  of  one  brick  thickness 
against   the    inner    planks    of   the    side   of   the    tent. 
Whilst  we  were  laying  of  these  bricks,  the  rest  of  our 


20  SPITSBERGEN 

company  were  otherwise  employed  every  one  of  them : 
some  in  taking  them  down,  others  in  making  of  them 
clean  and  in  bringing  them  in  baskets  into  the  tent. 
Some  in  making  morter,  and  hewing  of  boards  to  build 
the  other  side  withal,  and  two  others  all  the  while  in 
flaying  of  our  venison.  And  thus,  having  built  the 
two  outermost  sides  of  the  tent  with  bricks  and  morter, 
and  our  bricks  now  almost  spent,  we  were  enforced  to 
build  the  two  other  sides  with  boards  ;  and  that  in  this 
manner.  First  we  nailed  our  deal  boards  on  one  side 
of  the  post  or  stanchion  to  the  thickness  of  one  foot : 
and  on  the  other  side  in  like  manner :  and  so  filling  up 
the  hollow  place  with  sand,  it  became  so  tight  and 
warm  as  not  the  least  breath  of  air  could  possibly 
annoy  us.  Our  chimney's  vent  was  into  the  greater 
tent,  being  the  breadth  of  one  deal  board  and  four  foot 
long.  The  length  of  this  our  tent  was  twenty  foot 
and  the  breadth  sixteen ;  the  height  ten ;  our  ceiling 
being  deal  boards  five  or  six  times  double,  the  middle 
of  one  joining  so  close  to  the  shut  of  the  other  that  no 
wind  could  possibly  get  between.  As  for  our  door, 
besides  our  making  it  so  close  as  possibly  it  could  shut ; 
we  lined  it  moreover  with  a  bed  that  we  found  lying 
there,  which  came  over  both  the  opening  and  the  shut- 
ting of  it.  As  for  windows,  we  made  none  at  all,  so  that 
our  light  we  brought  in  through  the  greater  tent,  by 
removing  two  or  three  tiles  in  the  eaves,  which  light 
came  to  us  through  the  vent  of  our  chimney.  Our 
next  work  was  to  set  up  four  cabins,  billeting  ourselves 
two  and  two  in  a  cabin.  Our  beds  were  the  deer  skins 
dried,  which  we  found  to  be  extraordinary  warm,  and  a 
very  comfortable  kind  of  lodging  to  us  in  our  distress." 


THE   FIRST   WINTERING  21 

For  fuel  they  knocked  to  pieces  seven  old  boats  left 
ashore  by  the  ships,  storing  the  wood  over  the  beams 
of  the  tent  so  as  to  make  a  sort  of  floor  protecting  the 
interior  from  snow  driven  in  under  the  tiles,  and,  in 
addition,  they  broke  up  a  number  of  empty  casks.  To 
make  the  wood  last  as  long  as  possible  they  hit  upon  a 
device  for  keeping  the  fire  in — "  when  we  raked  up  our 
fire  at  night,  with  a  good  quantity  of  ashes  and  of 
embers,  we  put  into  the  midst  of  it  a  piece  of  elm 
wood,  where,  after  it  had  lain  sixteen  hours,  we  at  our 
opening  of  it  found  great  store  of  fire  upon  it,  whereupon 
we  made  a  common  practice  of  it  ever  after :  it  never 
went  out  in  eight  months  together,  or  thereabouts." 

Upon  the  12th  of  September  a  small  quantity  of 
drift  ice  came  into  the  sound,  on  a  piece  of  which  they 
found  two  walruses  asleep,  when  "  William  Fakely 
being  ready  with  his  harping  iron,  heaved  it  so  strongly 
into  the  old  one  that  he  quite  disturbed  her  of  her  rest : 
after  which,  she,  receiving  five  or  six  thrusts  with  our 
lances,  fell  into  a  sounder  sleep  of  death."  The  young 
one,  refusing  to  leave  her  mother,  was  also  killed ;  and 
a  week  afterwards  another  walrus  fell  a  victim ;  but 
even  with  these  the  store  of  provisions  was  inadequate. 
To  make  the  food  last,  they  put  themselves  on  an 
allowance  of  one  good  meal  a  day,  except  on  Wednes- 
days and  Fridays  which  were  fasting  days  devoted  to 
whale  sundries — "  a  very  loathsome  meat,"  says  Pell- 
ham,  in  brackets — later  on,  for  four  days  in  the  week 
they  fed  upon  "  the  unsavoury  and  mouldy  fritters,  and 
the  other  three  we  feasted  it  with  bear  and  venison." 
"  But,"  continues  the  narrative,  "  as  if  it  were  not 
enough  for  us  to  want  meat,  we  now  began  to  want 


22  SPITSBERGEN 

light  also ;  all  our  meals  proved  suppers  now,  for  little 
light  could  we  see ;  even  the  glorious  sun  (as  if  unwill- 
ing to  behold  our  miseries)  masking  his  lovely  face 
from  us,  under  the  sable  veil  of  coal-black  night."  But 
they  were  equal  to  the  emergency.  "  At  the  begin- 
ning of  this  darksome,  irksome  time,  we  sought  some 
means  of  preserving  light  amongst  us ;  finding  there- 
fore a  piece  of  sheet  lead  over  a  seam  of  one  of  the 
coolers,  that  we  ripped  off  and  made  three  lamps  of  it, 
which,  maintaining  with  oil  that  we  found  in  the 
coopers'  tent,  and  rope-yarn  serving  us  instead  of 
candle-wicks,  we  kept  them  continually  burning." 

Cheerful  and  resourceful  as  they  were,  their  fits  of  de- 
pression were  not  infrequent.  "  Our  extremities  being 
so  many,  made  us  sometimes  in  impatient  speeches 
to  break  forth  against  the  causers  of  our  miseries ;  but 
then  again,  our  consciences  telling  us  of  our  own  evil 
deservings,  we  took  it  either  for  a  punishment  upon  us 
for  our  former  wicked  lives ;  or  else  for  an  example  of 
God's  mercy  in  our  wonderful  deliverance:  humbling 
ourselves  therefore,  under  the  mighty  hand  of  God,  we 
cast  down  ourselves  before  him  in  prayer,  two  or  three 
times  a  day,  which  course  we  constantly  held  all  the 
time  of  our  misery." 

Their  prospects  got  worse,  but  they  never  lost  a 
little  hope.  "The  new  year  now  began:  as  the  days 
began  to  lengthen,  so  the  cold  began  to  strengthen ; 
which  cold  came  at  last  to  that  extremity,  as  that  it 
would  raise  blisters  on  our  flesh,  as  if  we  had  been 
burnt  with  fire,  and  if  we  touched  iron  at  any  time  it 
would  stick  to  our  fingers  like  bird-lime :  sometimes  if 
we  went  but  out  of  doors  to  fetch  in  a  little  water,  the 


THE   SUN   REAPPEARS  23 

cold  would  nip  us  in  such  a  sort  that  it  made  us  as  sore 
as  if  we  had  been  beaten  in  some  cruel  manner." 

Provisions  were  running  low  ;  the  men  began  to  talk 
of  famine,  and  the  outlook  became  daily  gloomier  until 
the  3rd  of  February.  "  This  proved  a  marvellous  cold 
day ;  yet  a  fair  and  clear  one ;  about  the  middle 
whereof,  all  clouds  now  quite  dispersed  and  night's 
sable  curtain  drawn,  Aurora  with  her  golden  face 
smiled  once  again  upon  us,  at  her  rising  out  of  her 
bed  ;  for  now  the  glorious  sun  with  his  glittering  beams 
began  to  gild  the  highest  tops  of  the  lofty  mountains. 
The  brightness  of  the  sun  and  the  whiteness  of  the 
snow,  both  together,  were  such  as  that  it  was  able  to 
revive  even  a  dying  spirit.  But  to  make  a  new  addi- 
tion to  our  new  joy,  we  might  perceive  two  bears  (a  she 
one  with  her  cub)  now  coming  towards  our  tent ; 
whereupon  we,  straight  arming  ourselves  with  our  lances, 
issued  out  of  the  tent  to  await  her  coming.  She  soon 
cast  her  greedy  eyes  upon  us,  and  with  full  hopes  of 
devouring  us  she  made  the  more  haste  unto  us ;  but 
with  our  hearty  lances  we  gave  her  such  a  welcome  as 
that  she  fell  down  and  biting  the  very  snow  for  anger." 

Then  more  bears  came  to  be  eaten ;  then  the  birds 
began  to  arrive,  and  the  foxes  to  come  out  of  their 
winter  earths  to  be  trapped  to  the  number  of  fifty ; 
then  the  reindeer  returned  ;  and  then,  on  the  25th  May, 
two  ships  of  Hull  came  into  the  sound  from  which  a 
boat's  crew  landing  unperceived  came  close  up  to  the 
tent  and  shouted  "Hey!"  And  Ayers,  the  only  man 
at  the  moment  in  the  outer  tent,  shouted  "  Ho  1" — and 
Pellham  and  his  shipmates  had  proved  it  to  be  possible 
to  live  through  a  winter  in  Spitsbergen. 


CHAPTER  II 
SPITSBERGEN 

(continued) 

The  summer  town  of  Smeerenberg— Himkoff  winters  in  North  East  Land — 
Phipps  reaches  80°  48' — Scoresby  the  elder  reaches  81°  30' — Scoresby  the 
younger — Voyage  of  the  Dorothea  and  Trent  under  Buchan  and  Franklin 
— Parry  reaches  82°  45' — Torell  and  Nordenskiold — Carlsen  sails  round 
Spitsbergen — Swedish  North  Polar  expedition  under  Nordenskiold — 
Lament — The  Diana  coal  mine— Leigh  Smith — Conway. 

THIS  wintering  of  the  Salutation  men  occurred 
when  the  Spitsbergen  fisheries  were  most  flourish- 
ing, the  prosperity  continuing  for  seven  more  years. 
So  lucrative  was  the  trade  that  on  Amsterdam  Island 
under  Hakluyt  Headland,  within  fifteen  miles  of  80° 
north  latitude,  about  as  far  from  the  North  Pole  as 
St.  Malo  is  from  John  o'  Groat's,  there  sprang  up  as 
a  summer  resort  the  Dutch  village  of  Smeerenberg. 
Such  was  the  bustle  produced  by  the  yearly  visit  of 
two  or  three  hundred  double-manned  vessels,  contain- 
ing from  twelve  thousand  to  eighteen  thousand  men, 
that  this  village  of  the  farthest  north  was  as  busy  as  a 
manufacturing  town.  The  incitement  of  prices  pro- 
portionate to  the  latitude  attracted  hundreds  of  annual 
settlers,  who  throve  on  the  sale  of  brandy,  wine, 
tobacco,  and  sundries  to  the  whale-fishers  in  shops  of 
all  varieties,  including  bakehouses,  where  the  blowing 
of  a  horn  let  the  sailors  know  that  the  bread  had  just 

24 


SMEERENBERG  25 

been  drawn  hot  from  the  oven.  In  fact,  hot  rolls  and 
every  delicacy  could  be  had  in  Smeerenberg,  which  the 
Dutch  averred  was  as  flourishing  as  Batavia,  founded 
by  them  a  few  years  before.  And  when  winter  was 
just  about  due  every  man — and  woman — went  back  to 
Holland.  But  the  life  of  Smeerenberg  was  a  short 
and  a  merry  one,  for  in  1640  the  shore  fisheries  were 
failing,  and  a  year  or  so  afterwards  the  lingerers  of  its 
last  season  left  it  for  good,  clearing  out  from  its  houses 
of  brick  and  wood,  demolishing  its  furnaces,  removing 
its  copper  cauldrons  and  coolers  and  casks  and  every- 
thing that  could  be  taken  away,  and  leaving  it  in 
desolation  to  be  occupied  in  the  next  and  subsequent 
summers  by  polar  bears. 

Like  all  seaside  resorts  it  had  its  rival.  Close  by  is 
the  Cookery-of-Haarlem,  abandoned  at  the  same  time, 
but  rather  more  hurriedly.  When  Martens  went  there 
on  the  15th  of  July,  1671,  he  found  four  houses  still 
standing,  in  one  of  which  were  "several  barrels  or 
kardels  that  were  quite  decayed,  the  ice  standing  in 
the  same  shape  the  vessels  had  been  made  of:  an  anvil, 
smith's  tongs,  and  other  tools  belonging  to  the  cookery, 
were  frozen  up  in  the  ice ;  the  kettle  was  still  standing 
as  it  was  set,  and  the  wooden  troughs  stood  by  it." 
Behind  these  houses  "are  high  mountains,"  he  con- 
tinues, "  if  one  climbeth  upon  these,  as  we  do  on  others, 
and  doth  not  mark  every  step  with  chalk,  one  doth  not 
know  how  to  get  down  again :  when  you  go  up  you 
think  it  to  be  very  easy  to  be  down ;  but  when  you 
descend  it  is  very  difficult  and  dangerous,  so  that  many 
have  fallen  and  lost  their  lives."  Absurd  as  this  chalk- 
ing of  the  steps  may  seem,  there  have  been  many  who 


26  SPITSBERGEN 

have  taken  the  hint  from  the  careful  Martens  when 
climbing  in  Spitsbergen,  and  many  who  have  regretted 
not  having  done  so. 

In  ordinary  summers  the  west  side  of  Spitsbergen  is 
clear  of  ice,  not  so  the  eastern  side,  the  difference  being 
due  to  the  Gulf  Stream,  which,  though  evidently  fail- 
ing, is  traceable  along  the  coast  round  Hakluyt  Head- 
land and  up  to  the  ice  barrier.  In  addition  to  this 
there  is  the  general  cause,  whatever  it  may  be,  which 
makes  the  western  coasts  of  all  Arctic  lands,  isolated 
or  not,  warmer  than  the  eastern.  Greenland,  for 
instance,  is  more  approachable  in  summer  from  Davis 
Strait  than  from  the  Greenland  Sea,  Novaya  Zemlya 
from  Barents  Sea  than  from  Kara  Sea,  and  so  on  with 
all  the  islands  and  peninsulas  of  Asia  and  America. 
Hence  all  this  whaling  was  confined  practically  to  the 
western  harbours  of  West  Spitsbergen,  the  largest  of 
the  group  of  islands.  The  next  largest,  North  East 
Land,  was  never  much  visited  except  from  Hinlopen 
Strait,  though  the  Russians  from  time  to  time  took 
some  interest  in  the  north  and  east  harbours,  and  would 
have  taken  more,  for  it  abounded  in  reindeer,  if  the 
ice  had  not  made  the  landing  an  enterprise  of  some 
difficulty. 

On  the  east  coast  of  North  East  Land,  in  1743,  a 
Russian  whaler  was  caught  in  the  pack,  and  the  mate, 
Alexis  Himkoff,  remembering  that  a  house  had  been 
built  there  some  years  before,  went  on  shore  with  his 
godson,  Ivan  Himkoff,  and  two  sailors,  Scharapoff  and 
Weregin,  in  search  of  it,  in  case  the  ship  should  have 
to  be  abandoned.  They  found  the  house,  but,  on 
returning  to  the  shore  next  morning,  could  see  nothing 


HIMKOFF  IN   NORTH   EAST  LAND  27 

of  the  ship,  which  had  apparently  been  carried  away 
and  crushed  in  the  ice.  They  had  brought  with  them 
a  musket,  a  powder-horn  with  twelve  charges  of 
powder,  twelve  bullets,  an  axe,  a  small  kettle,  a  bag 
with  about  twenty  pounds  of  flour,  a  knife,  a  tinder- 
box  and  tinder,  a  bladder  of  tobacco,  and  every  man 
had  his  pipe.  That  was  their  outfit. 

The  house  was  thirty-six  feet  in  length,  and  eighteen 
in  height  and  breadth.  It  contained  a  small  ante- 
chamber about  twelve  feet  broad,  which  had  two  doors, 
one  to  close  it  from  the  outer  air,  the  other  admitting 
to  the  inner  room  in  which  was  a  Russian  stove,  a  kind 
of  oven  without  a  chimney,  serving  at  will  for  heating, 
for  baking,  or  for  sleeping  on.  Realising  that  they  had 
a  long  stay  before  them,  they  began  by  shooting 
twelve  reindeer,  one  for  each  bullet.  They  then  re- 
paired the  house,  stopping  up  all  the  crevices  with 
moss ;  and  they  then  laid  in  a  store  of  fuel  from  the 
driftwood,  there  being  no  trees  on  the  island.  On  the 
beach  they  found  some  boards  with  nails  in  them,  and 
a  long  iron  hook  and  a  few  other  pieces  of  old  iron. 
And  also  there  was  a  root  of  a  fir  tree  in  shape  not 
unlike  a  bow.  Those  were  the  materials  they  had  to 
make  the  best  of. 

A  large  stone  served  for  an  anvil,  a  pair  of  deer  horns 
did  duty  for  tongs,  and  with  these  and  the  fire,  the  iron 
hook  was  made  into  a  hammer ;  and  then  two  of  the 
nails  were  shaped  into  spear-heads,  which  were  tied  to 
sticks  from  the  driftwood  with  strips  of  deerskin. 
With  these  weapons  they  began  by  killing  a  bear, 
whose  flesh  they  ate,  whose  skin  they  kept,  and  whose 
tendons  they  made  into  thread  and  a  string  for  the 


28  SPITSBERGEN 

bow  formed  out  of  the  root  of  the  fir  tree.  More 
nails  were  forged  into  arrow-heads,  tied  with  sinew  on 
to  light  sticks  cut  with  the  knife,  the  shafts  being 
feathered  from  the  feathers  of  seafowl.  With  these 
weapons  they  shot,  before  they  had  finished,  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  reindeer,  and  they  kept  the  skins,  as  they 
did  also  those  of  a  large  number  of  blue  and  white 
foxes,  as  we  shall  see  in  the  sequel.  In  their  own 
protection  they  killed  nine  bears,  the  only  one  they 
deliberately  attacked  being  the  first. 

To  be  sure  of  keeping  their  fire  alight  they  modelled 
a  lamp  out  of  clay,  which  they  filled  with  deer-fat, 
with  twisted  linen  for  a  wick;  but  the  clay  was  too 
porous,  the  fat  ran  through  it;  so  they  made  another 
lamp  of  the  same  stuff,  dried  it  in  the  air,  heated  it  red 
hot,  and  cooled  it  in  a  sort  of  thin  starch  made  of  flour 
and  water,  strengthening  the  pottery  by  pasting  linen 
rags  over  it.  The  result  was  so  successful  that  they 
made  a  second  lamp  as  a  reserve.  Some  wreckage 
gave  them  a  little  cordage  and  a  quantity  of  oakum, 
which  came  in  for  lamp-wicks.  The  lamp,  like  the 
sacred  fire,  was  never  allowed  to  go  out.  To  make 
themselves  clothes,  they  soaked  skins  in  fresh  water  till 
the  hair  could  be  pulled  off  easily,  and  rubbed  them 
well,  and  then  rubbed  deer  fat  into  them  until  they 
were  pliant  and  supple.  Some  of  the  skins  they  pre- 
pared as  furs.  Out  of  nails  they,  after  many  failures, 
made  awls  and  needles,  getting  the  eyes  by  piercing  the 
heads  with  the  point  of  the  knife,  and  smoothing  and 
pointing  them  by  rounding  and  whetting  them  on  a 
stone. 

For  six  years  they  lived  in  this  desert  place.     Then 


PHIPPS   AND   LUTWIDGE  29 

one  of  them,  Weregin,  died  of  scurvy,  and  their 
gloomy  forebodings  as  to  which  was  to  be  taken  next 
were  broken  in  upon  by  their  sighting  a  ship,  to  which 
they  signalled  with  a  flag  made  of  deerskin.  The 
signal  was  seen  and  they  were  rescued  ;  and  they  took 
back  to  Archangel  two  thousand  pounds  weight  of 
reindeer  fat,  their  bales  of  skins  and  furs,  their  bow  and 
arrows  and  spears,  and  in  short  everything  they  pos- 
sessed. And  they  arrived  there  on  the  28th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1749,  comfortably  off  from  the  value  of  the 
goods  they  brought  with  them — the  heroes  of  one  of 
the  very  best  of  true  desert  island  stories. 

Like  most  Russians  they  do  not  seem  to  have 
suffered  much  from  the  cold  or  to  have  been  incon- 
venienced by  the  summer  heat,  which  is  also  consider- 
able. In  1773,  on  the  13th  of  June,  when  Phipps 
and  Lutwidge  anchored  in  Fair  Haven,  round  by 
Amsterdam  Island,  they  found  the  thermometer  reach 
58J°  at  noon  and  descend  no  lower  than  51°  at  mid- 
night, and  on  the  16th  it  rose  in  the  sun  to  89 J°  till  a 
light  breeze  made  it  fall  almost  suddenly  ten  degrees. 
This  was  the  expedition  sent  out  to  the  North  Pole, 
mainly  at  the  instigation  of  Daines  Barrington,  Gilbert 
White's  friend.  The  ships  were  the  Racehorse  and 
Carcass ;  and,  as  every  one  knows,  or  ought  to  know, 
as  midshipman  with  Captain  Lutwidge  went  Horatio 
Nelson,  then  a  boy  of  fourteen,  who  was  to  figure 
largely  in  the  world,  though  on  this  occasion  he  did 
nothing  remarkable  beyond  attacking  a  polar  bear, 
whose  skin  he  thought  would  make  a  nice  present  for 
his  father,  and  bringing  his  boat  to  the  rescue  when 
one  of  the  Racehorse  boats  was  attacked  by  walruses. 


30  SPITSBERGEN 

For  another  thing  the  expedition  is  memorable,  that 
being  that  the  useful  apparatus  for  the  distillation  of 
fresh  water  from  sea  water,  known  to  every  seafarer, 
was  first  used  on  this  voyage,  Dr.  Irving,  its  inventor, 
being  the  surgeon  of  the  Racehorse.  Another  item  to 
be  noted  is  that  Phipps  had  with  him  a  Cavendish 
thermometer,  which  he  tried  the  day  after  he  crossed 
the  Arctic  Circle,  and  found  that  at  a  depth  of  780 
fathoms  the  temperature  was  26°,  while  at  the  surface 
it  was  48°. 

Phipps  did  all  he  could  to  go  north,  and,  in 
longitude  14°  59'  east,  reached  80°  48',  the  nearest  to 
the  Pole  up  to  then,  but  he  was  foiled  by  the  ice 
barrier,  which  br  tried  to  penetrate  again  and  again. 
He  got  his  shijjs  caught  in  the  ice  and  took  to  his 
boats,  thinking  he  would  have  to  abandon  them,  when 
fortunately  the  pack  drifted  south,  and  the  vessels, 
clearing  themselves  under  sail,  caught  the  boats  up 
and  took  them  on  board.  Then  he  went  along  the 
edge  of  the  ice  westward,  and,  finding  no  opening, 
gave  the  venture  up  and  sailed  for  home. 

The  next  to  do  good  work  within  this  area  was 
William  Scoresby  the  elder,  whose  only  equal  as  a 
whale-fisher  was  his  son.  To  him  we  owe  the  inven- 
tion of  the  crow's  nest,  that  cylindrical  frame  covered 
with  canvas,  entrance  to  which  is  given  by  a  trap-hatch 
in  the  base,  reached  by  a  Jacob's  ladder  from  the  top- 
mast crosstrees,  the  conning-tower,  so  to  speak,  carried 
since  by  every  ship  on  Arctic  service.  He  was  also 
the  inventor  of  the  ice-drill  and  many  another  imple- 
ment and  device  used  in  Polar  navigation ;  and  he  it 
was  who  sloped  off  his  fore  and  main  courses  to  come 


WHALERS  AMONG   ICEBERGS 


To  face  page  30 


WILLIAM  SCORESBY  31 

inboard  to  a  boom  fitted  to  the  foot,  used  by  every 
whaler,  by  which,  in  fact,  you  may  know  them.  He 
also,  long  before  the  A  merica,  discovered  the  advantage 
of  flat  sails,  and,  in  order  to  get  his  weights  well  down, 
he  filled  his  casks  with  water  as  ballast  and  packed 
them  with  shingle,  so  that,  instead  of  going  out  light, 
he  was  in  the  best  of  trim,  with  a  power  of  beating 
to  windward  that  took  him  to  the  fishing  ground  in 
double  quick  time  and  further  into  the  ice,  when  he 
chose,  than  any  of  his  competitors. 

Out  in  the  Resolution  in  1806  he  saw  from  his  crow's 
nest,  in  which  he  often  spent  a  dozen  hours  at  a  stretch, 
that  below  the  ice-blink — the  white  line  in  the  sky 
which  betokens  the  presence  of  ice — there  was  a  blue- 
grey  streak  denoting  open  water,  and  that  the  motion 
of  the  sea  around  the  ship  must  be  due  to  a  swell, 
which  could  only  come  from  open  water  to  the  north- 
ward. On  the  13th  of  May  he  started  for  this.  By 
sawing  the  ice,  hammering  at  it,  dropping  his  boats  on 
to  it  from  the  bow,  sallying  the  ship — that  is,  rolling 
her  by  running  the  crew  backwards  and  forwards 
across  her  deck — and,  in  fact,  using  every  means  he 
could  think  of,  he  passed  the  barrier  in  the  eightieth 
parallel,  and,  on  the  24th  of  June,  attained  81°  30',  the 
farthest  north  ever  reached  by  a  sailing  vessel  in  these 
seas.  On  that  day  there  was  not  a  ship  within  three 
hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  the  Resolution.  The  bold 
venture  proved  a  thorough  success  ;  in  thirty-two  days 
he  filled  up  with  twenty-four  whales,  two  seals,  two 
walruses,  and  a  narwhal — one  of  the  most  profitable 
of  his  thirty  voyages. 

In  this  voyage  the  chief  officer  was  his  son,  William 


32  SPITSBERGEN 

Scoresby  the  younger,  whose  Arctic  Regions  is  the  best 
book  ever  written  on  the  northern  seas.  Sent  by  his 
father  to  Edinburgh  University  where  he  studied 
almost  every  branch  of  natural  and  physical  science,  he 
was  thoroughly  equipped  for  his  task,  and  his  practical 
experience  as  a  whaling  captain  and  trained  observer 
stood  him  in  such  stead  that  his  book  is  still  the  basis 
of  all  scientific  Polar  research.  His  description  of  the 
Spitsbergen  coast  as  seen  from  a  ship  is  as  faithful  to- 
day as  when  he  wrote  it.  "  Spitsbergen  and  its  islands, 
with  some  other  countries  within  the  Arctic  Circle, 
exhibit  a  kind  of  scenery  which  is  altogether  novel. 
The  principal  objects  which  strike  the  eye  are  innumer- 
able mountainous  peaks,  ridges,  precipices,  or  needles, 
rising  immediately  out  of  the  sea  to  an  elevation  of 
3000  or  4000  feet,  the  colour  of  which,  at  a  moderate 
distance,  appears  to  be  blackish  shades  of  brown,  green, 
grey  and  purple ;  snow  or  ice,  in  striae  or  patches, 
occupying  the  various  clefts  and  hollows  in  the  sides  of 
the  hills,  capping  some  of  the  mountain  summits,  and 
filling  with  extended  beds  the  most  considerable  valleys ; 
and  ice  of  the  glacier  form,  occurring  at  intervals  all 
along  the  coast,  in  particular  situations  as  already  de- 
scribed, in  prodigious  accumulations.  The  glistening  or 
vitreous  appearance  of  the  icy  precipices ;  the  purity, 
whiteness,  and  beauty  of  the  sloping  expanse  formed 
by  their  snowy  surfaces ;  the  gloomy  shade  presented 
by  the  adjoining  or  intermixed  mountains  and  rocks, 
perpetually  covered  with  a  mourning  veil  of  black 
lichens,  with  the  sudden  transitions  into  a  robe  of 
purest  white,  where  patches  or  beds  of  snow  occur, 
present  a  variety  and  extent  of  contrast  altogether 


FRANKLIN'S  FIRST  ARCTIC  VOYAGE  33 

peculiar;  which,  when  enlightened  by  the  occasional 
ethereal  brilliancy  of  the  Polar  sky,  and  harmonised  in 
its  serenity  with  the  calmness  of  the  ocean,  constitute  a 
picture  both  novel  and  magnificent.  There  is,  indeed, 
a  kind  of  majesty,  not  to  be  conveyed  in  words,  in 
these  extraordinary  accumulations  of  snow  and  ice  in 
the  valleys,  and  in  the  rocks  above  rocks  and  peaks 
above  peaks,  in  the  mountain  groups,  seen  rising  above 
the  ordinary  elevation  of  the  clouds,  and  terminating 
occasionally  in  crests  of  snow,  especially  when  you 
approach  the  shore  under  the  shelter  of  the  impene- 
trable density  of  a  summer  fog ;  in  which  case  the  fog 
sometimes  disperses  like  the  drawing  of  a  curtain,  when 
the  strong  contrast  of  light  and  shade,  heightened  by  a 
cloudless  atmosphere  and  powerful  sun,  bursts  on  the 
senses  in  a  brilliant  exhibition  resembling  the  produc- 
tion of  magic." 

In  1818  there  went  out  the  first  British  expedition 
prepared  to  winter  in  the  north.  The  vessels  were  two 
whalers  bought  into  the  navy,  the  Dorothea  and  Trent, 
the  first  under  the  command  of  David  Buchan,  the 
other  under  that  of  John  Franklin.  Neither  officer 
had  been  in  the  Arctic  region  before,  but  Buchan  had 
done  excellent  service  in  surveying  Newfoundland,  and 
Franklin  had  been  marked  for  special  duty  owing  to  his 
work  in  Australian  seas  under  his  cousin,  Matthew 
Flinders,  and  for  the  manner  in  which  on  his  way  home 
he  had  acted  as  signal  officer  to  Nathaniel  Dance  in 
that  ever-memorable  victory  off  the  Straits  of  Malacca, 
when  the  Indiamen  defeated  and  pursued  a  French 
fleet  under  Admiral  Linois.  Dance's  report  gave 
Franklin  a  further  chance  of  distinction,  for  it  led  to 


34  SPITSBERGEN 

his  appointment  to  the  Bellerophon,  whose  signal 
officer  he  was  during  the  battle  of  Trafalgar. 

They  were  instructed  to  proceed  to  the  North  Pole, 
thence  to  continue  on  to  Bering  Strait  direct,  or  by  the 
best  route  they  could  find,  to  make  their  way  to  the 
Sandwich  Islands  or  New  Albion,  and  thence  to  come 
back  through  Bering  Strait  eastward,  keeping  in  sight 
and  approaching  the  coast  of  America  whenever  the 
position  of  the  ice  permitted  them  so  to  do.  A  nice 
little  programme.  But  they  started  too  early  in  a  bad 
season ;  they  did  not  get  so  far  north  as  Phipps ;  they 
made  accurate  surveys  and  other  observations ;  in 
exploration  they  did  little ;  and  they  had  many  adven- 
tures. 

As  they  ranged  along  the  western  side  of  Spitsbergen 
the  weather  was  severe.  The  snow  fell  in  heavy 
showers,  and  several  tons'  weight  of  ice  accumulated 
about  the  sides  of  the  Trent,  and  formed  a  complete 
casing  to  the  planks,  which  received  an  additional  layer 
at  each  plunge  of  the  vessel.  So  great,  indeed,  was 
the  accumulation  about  the  bows,  that  they  were 
obliged  to  cut  it  away  repeatedly  with  axes  to  relieve 
the  bowsprit  from  the  enormous  weight  that  was 
attached  to  it :  and  the  ropes  were  so  thickly  covered 
with  ice  that  it  was  necessary  to  beat  them  with  large 
sticks  to  keep  them  in  a  state  of  readiness.  In  the 
gale  the  ships  parted  company,  but  they  met  again  at 
the  rendezvous  in  Magdalena  Bay. 

Later  on,  off  Cloven  Cliff,  there  was  a  walrus  fight 
begun  by  the  seamen  and  continued  by  the  walruses 
when  they  found  themselves  more  at  home  in  the 
water  than  on  the  ice.  They  rose  in  numbers  about 


SIR  JOHN   FRANKLIN 


To  face  page  34 


A   FIGHT  WITH   WALRUSES  35 

the  boats,  rushing  at  them,  snorting  with  rage,  en- 
deavouring to  upset  them  or  stave  them  in  by  hooking 
their  tusks  on  the  gunwales,  or  butting  at  them  with 
their  heads.  "  It  was  the  opinion  of  our  people,"  says 
Beechey,  "  that  in  this  assault  the  walruses  were  led  on 
by  one  animal  in  particular,  a  much  larger  and  more 
formidable  beast  than  any  of  the  others;  and  they 
directed  their  efforts  more  particularly  towards  him, 
but  he  withstood  all  the  blows  of  their  tomahawks 
without  flinching,  and  his  tough  hide  resisted  the  entry 
of  the  whale  lances,  which  were,  unfortunately,  not 
very  sharp,  and  soon  bent  double.  The  herd  was  so 
numerous,  and  their  attacks  so  incessant,  that  there 
was  not  time  to  load  a  musket,  which,  indeed,  was  the 
only  effectual  mode  of  seriously  injuring  them.  The 
purser,  fortunately,  had  his  gun  loaded,  and  the  whole 
now  being  nearly  exhausted  with  chopping  and  stick- 
ing at  their  assailants,  he  snatched  it  up,  and,  thrust- 
ing the  muzzle  down  the  throat  of  the  leader,  fired 
into  him.  The  wound  proved  mortal,  and  the  animal 
fell  back  amongst  his  companions,  who  immediately 
desisted  from  their  attack,  assembled  round  him,  and 
in  a  moment  quitted  the  boat,  swimming  away  as  hard 
as  they  could  with  their  leader,  whom  they  actually 
bore  up  with  their  tusks  and  assiduously  preserved 
from  sinking." 

On  one  occasion  Franklin  and  Beechey,  when  out  in 
a  boat  together,  witnessed  the  launch  of  an  iceberg. 
They  had  approached  the  end  of  a  glacier  and  were 
trying  to  search  into  the  recess  of  a  deep  cavern  at 
its  foot  when  they  heard  a  report  as  if  of  a  cannon, 
and,  turning  to  the  quarter  whence  it  proceeded,  per- 


36  SPITSBERGEN 

ceived  an  immense  piece  of  the  front  of  the  cliff  of  ice 
gliding  down  from  a  height  of  two  hundred  feet  at 
least  into  the  sea,  and  dispersing  the  water  in  every 
direction,  accompanied  by  a  loud  grinding  noise,  and 
followed  by  a  quantity  of  water,  which,  lodged  in  the 
fissures,  made  its  escape  in  numberless  small  cataracts 
over  the  front  of  the  glacier.  They  kept  the  boat's 
head  in  the  direction  of  the  sea  and  thus  escaped 
disaster,  for  the  disturbance  occasioned  by  the  plunge 
of  this  enormous  fragment  caused  a  succession  of 
rollers,  which  swept  over  the  surface  of  the  bay, 
making  its  shores  resound  as  it  travelled  along  it,  and 
at  a  distance  of  four  miles  was  so  considerable  that  it 
became  necessary  to  right  the  Dorothea,  which  was  then 
careening,  by  instantly  releasing  the  tackles  which  con- 
fined her.  The  piece  that  had  been  disengaged  wholly 
disappeared  under  water,  and  nothing  was  seen  but  a 
violent  boiling  of  the  sea  and  a  shooting  up  of  clouds 
of  spray  like  that  which  occurs  at  the  foot  of  a  great 
cataract.  After  a  short  time  it  reappeared,  raising  its 
head  full  a  hundred  feet  above  the  surface,  with  water 
pouring  down  from  all  parts  of  it ;  and  then,  labouring 
as  if  doubtful  which  way  it  should  fall,  it  rolled  over, 
and,  after  rocking  about  for  some  minutes,  became 
settled.  It  was  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  mile  round  and 
floated  sixty  feet  out  of  the  water,  and  making  a 
fair  allowance  for  its  inequalities,  was  computed  to 
weigh  421,600  tons. 

There  were  frequent  landings,  often  with  difficulties 
in  the  return,  due  generally  to  attempts  at  making  a 
short  cut  to  the  shore  or  across  the  ice.  Of  these 
short  cuts  the  very  shortest  was  that  made  by  one  of 


TRACK    OF    H.M.S.    "DOROTHEA"  AND   "TRENT" 


To  face  page  36 


A  DANGEROUS   DESCENT  37 

the  sailors  named  Spinks,  who  was  out  with  a  party  in 
pursuit  of  reindeer.  The  ardour  of  the  chase  had  led 
them  beyond  the  prescribed  limits,  and  when  the 
signal  was  made  for  their  return  to  the  boat  some  of 
them  were  upon  the  top  of  a  hill.  Spinks,  an  active 
and  zealous  fellow,  anxious  to  be  first  at  his  post, 
thought  he  would  outstrip  his  comrades  by  descending 
the  snow,  which  was  banked  against  the  mountain  at 
an  angle  of  about  40°  with  the  horizon,  and  rested 
against  a  small  glacier  on  the  left.  The  height  was 
about  two  thousand  feet,  and  in  the  event  of  his  foot 
slipping  there  was  nothing  to  impede  his  progress  until 
he  reached  the  beach,  either  by  the  slope  or  the  more 
terrific  descent  of  the  face  of  the  glacier.  He  began 
his  career  by  digging  his  heels  into  the  snow,  the 
surface  of  which  was  rather  hard.  At  first  he  got  on 
very  well,  but  presently  his  foot  slipped,  or  the  snow 
was  too  hard  for  his  heel  to  make  an  impression,  and 
he  increased  in  speed,  keeping  his  balance,  however,  by 
means  of  his  hands.  In  a  very  short  time  his  descent 
was  fearfully  quick ;  the  fine  snow  flew  about  him  like 
dust,  and  there  seemed  but  little  chance  of  his  reach- 
ing the  bottom  in  safety,  especially  as  his  course  was 
taking  him  in  the  direction  of  the  glacier.  For  a 
moment  he  was  lost  sight  of  behind  a  crag  of  the 
mountain,  and  it  was  thought  he  had  gone  over  the 
glacier,  but  with  great  presence  of  mind  and  dexterity, 
"  by  holding  water  first  with  one  hand  and  then  the 
other,"  to  use  his  own  expression,  he  contrived  to 
escape  the  danger,  and,  like  a  skilful  pilot,  steered  into 
a  place  of  refuge  amid  a  bed  of  soft  snow  recently 
drifted  against  the  hill.  When  he  extricated  himself 


38  SPITSBERGEN 

from  the  depths  into  which  he  had  been  plunged  he 
had  to  hold  together  his  tattered  clothes,  for  he  had 
worn  away  two  pairs  of  trousers  and  something  more. 
That  was  all  his  damage,  and  we  shall  meet  with  him 
again  in  the  west  out  with  Franklin  and  Captain  Back. 
In  the  morning  of  the  30th  of  July  the  ships  found 
themselves  caught  in  a  gale  with  the  ice  close  to  lee- 
ward. The  only  way  of  escaping  destruction  seemed 
to  be  by  taking  refuge  in  the  pack.  It  was  a  desperate 
expedient  rarely  resorted  to  by  whalers  and  only  in 
extreme  cases.  In  the  Trent  a  cable  was  cut  up  into 
thirty-foot  lengths,  and  these,  with  plates  of  iron  four 
feet  square,  supplied  as  fenders,  and  some  walrus  hides, 
were  hung  around  her,  mainly  about  her  bows ;  the 
masts  were  secured  with  extra  ropes,  and  the  hatches 
were  battened  and  nailed  down.  When  a  few  fathoms 
from  the  ice  those  on  board  searched  with  anxiety  for 
an  opening  in  the  pack,  but  saw  nothing  but  an  un- 
broken line  of  furious  breakers  with  huge  masses  heav- 
ing and  plunging  with  the  waves  and  dashing  together 
with  a  violence  that  nothing  but  a  solid  body  seemed 
likely  to  withstand  ;  and  the  noise  was  so  great  that  the 
orders  to  the  crew  could  with  difficulty  be  heard.  At 
one  moment  the  sea  was  bursting  upon  the  ice  blocks 
and  burying  them  deep  beneath  its  wave,  and  the  next, 
as  the  buoyancy  brought  them  up  again,  the  water  was 
pouring  in  foaming  cataracts  over  their  edges,  the 
masses  rocking  and  labouring  in  their  bed,  grinding 
and  striving  with  each  other  until  one  was  either  split 
with  the  shock  or  lifted  on  to  the  top  of  its  neighbour. 
Far  as  the  eye  could  reach  the  turmoil  stretched,  and 
overhead  was  the  clearness  of  a  calm  and  silvery 


THE  SHIPS  RUN  INTO  THE  PACK  39 

atmosphere  bounded  by  a  dark  line  of  storm  cloud 
lowering  over  the  masts  as  if  to  mark  the  confines 
within  which  no  effort  would  avail. 

"At  this  instant,"  says  Beechey,  "when  we  were 
about  to  put  the  strength  of  our  little  vessel  in  com- 
petition with  that  of  the  great  icy  continent,  and  when 
it  seemed  almost  presumption  to  reckon  on  the  possi- 
bility of  her  surviving  the  unequal  conflict,  it  was 
gratifying  in  the  extreme  to  observe  in  all  our  crew  the 
greatest  calmness  and  resolution.  If  ever  the  fortitude 
of  seamen  was  fairly  tried  it  was  assuredly  not  less  so 
than  on  this  occasion ;  and  I  will  not  conceal  the  pride 
I  felt  in  witnessing  the  bold  and  decisive  tone  in  which 
the  orders  were  issued  by  the  commander  of  our  little 
vessel,  and  the  promptitude  and  steadiness  with  which 
they  were  executed  by  the  crew." 

The  brig  was  steered  bow  on  to  the  ice.  Every  man 
instinctively  gripped  his  hold,  and  with  his  eyes  fixed 
on  the  masts  awaited  the  moment  of  concussion.  In 
an  instant  they  all  lost  their  footing,  the  masts  bent 
with  the  shock,  and  the  timbers  cracked  below ;  the 
vessel  staggered  and  seemed  to  recoil,  when  the  next 
wave,  curling  up  under  her  counter,  drove  her  about  her 
own  length  within  the  edge  of  the  ice,  where  she  gave 
a  roll  and  was  thrown  broadside  to  the  wind  by  the 
succeeding  wave  which  beat  furiously  against  her  stern, 
bringing  her  lee  in  touch  with  the  main  mass  and  leav- 
ing her  weather  side  exposed  to  a  floe  about  twice  her 
size.  Battered  on  all  sides,  tossed  from  fragment  to 
fragment,  nothing  could  be  done  but  await  the  issue, 
for  the  men  could  hardly  keep  their  feet,  the  motion 
being  so  great  that  the  ship's  bell,  which  in  the  heaviest 


40  SPITSBERGEN 

gale  had  never  struck  of  itself,  now  tolled  so  continu- 
ously that  it  had  to  be  muffled. 

After  a  time  an  effort  was  made  to  put  the  vessel 
before  the  wind  and  drive  her  further  into  the  pack. 
Some  of  the  men  gained  the  fore-topsail-yard  and  let  a 
reef  out  of  the  sail,  and  the  jib  was  dragged  half  up 
the  stay  by  the  windlass.  The  brig  swung  into  posi- 
tion, and,  aided  by  a  mass  under  her  stern,  split  the 
block,  fourteen  feet  thick,  which  had  barred  her  way, 
and  made  a  passage  for  herself  into  comparative  safety ; 
and  after  some  four  hours  the  gale  moderated.  Strained 
and  leaking  the  Trent  had  suffered  much,  but  the 
Dorothea  had  been  damaged  more ;  and  both  returned 
to  Fair  Haven,  where  it  was  found  hopeless  to  con- 
tinue the  voyage,  and  thence,  when  the  ships  had  been 
temporarily  repaired,  they  sailed  for  England.  The 
expedition  had  not  done  much,  but  it  had  given  their 
Arctic  schooling  to  Franklin,  Beechey,  and  Back. 

In  May,  1827,  Parry,  in  the  Hecla,  was  forced  to 
run  into  the  ice,  but  not  quite  in  the  same  way  as 
Buchan  did.  He  was  beset  for  three  weeks,  and  then, 
getting  clear,  proceeded  to  the  Seven  Islands  to  the 
north  of  Spitsbergen,  on  one  of  which,  Walden,  he 
placed  a  reserve  of  provisions ;  the  ship,  after  reaching 
81°  5',  going  to  Treurenberg  Bay,  in  Hinlopen  Strait, 
to  await  his  return. 

From  here  he  made  his  dash  for  the  Pole.  He  had 
with  him  two  boats  of  his  own  design,  seven  feet  in 
beam,  twenty  in  length.  On  each  side  of  the  keel  was 
a  strong  runner,  shod  with  steel,  upon  which  the  boat 
stood  upright  on  the  ice.  They  were  so  built  that  they 
would  have  floated  as  bags  had  they  been  stove  in.  On 


PARRY'S  DASH   FOR  THE   POLE  41 

ash  and  hickory  timbers,  an  inch  by  an  inch  and  a  half 
thick,  placed  a  foot  apart,  with  a  half-timber  of  smaller 
size  between  each,  was  stretched  a  casing  of  waterproof 
canvas  tarred  on  the  outer  side  and  protected  by  a  skin 
of  fir  three-sixteenths  of  an  inch  thick,  over  this  came 
a  sheet  of  stout  felt,  and  over  all  a  skin  of  oak  of  the 
same  thickness  as  the  fir,  each  boat  weighing  about 
fourteen  hundredweight — that  is  the  hull,  as  launched. 
One  of  these  boats  was  named  the  Enterprise,  the  other 
the  Endeavour.  They  were  intended  to  be  hauled  by 
reindeer,  but  the  state  of  the  ice  rendered  this  imprac- 
ticable and  the  men  did  the  work  themselves.  Parry 
took  command  of  the  Enterprise,  the  other  being  in 
charge  of  Lieutenant  James  Clark  Ross ;  and,  alto- 
gether, officers  and  men  numbered  twenty-eight. 

From  Little  Table  Island,  where  they  left  a  reserve 
as  they  had  done  at  Walden,  they  started  for  the  north 
— two  heavy  boats  laden  with  food  for  seventy  days 
and  clothing  for  twenty-eight  men,  with  a  compact 
equipment  including  light  sledges,  travelling  in  a  sea 
crowded  or  covered  with  ice  in  every  form,  large  and 
small,  over  which  they  were  dragged  up  and  down 
hummocks,  round  and  among  crags  and  ridges,  along 
surfaces  of  every  kind  of  ruggedness,  of  every  slope 
and  irregularity,  the  few  flat  stretches  broken  with 
patches  of  sharp  crystals  or  waist-deep  snow ;  through 
lanes  and  pools  of  water  with  frequent  ferryings  and 
transhipments,  in  sunshine  and  fog,  and,  strange  to 
say,  frequently  in  pouring  rain.  They  travelled  by 
night  and  rested  by  day,  though,  of  course,  there  was 
daylight  all  the  time.  "  The  advantages  of  this  plan," 
says  Parry,  "which  was  occasionally  deranged  by  cir- 


42  SPITSBERGEN 

cumstances,  consisted,  first  in  our  avoiding  the  intense 
and  oppressive  glare  from  the  snow  during  the  time  of 
the  sun's  greatest  altitude,  so  as  to  prevent  in  some 
degree  the  painful  inflammation  in  the  eyes  called 
snow-blindness  which  is  common  in  all  snowy  coun- 
tries. We  also  thus  enjoyed  greater  warmth  during 
the  hours  of  rest  and  had  a  better  chance  of  drying  our 
clothes  ;  besides  which  no  small  advantage  was  derived 
from  the  snow  being  harder  at  night  for  travelling. 
When  we  rose  in  the  evening  we  commenced  our  day 
by  prayers,  after  which  we  took  off  our  sleeping  dresses 
and  put  on  those  for  travelling,  the  former  being  made 
of  camlet  lined  with  racoon  skin,  and  the  latter  of 
strong  blue,  box  cloth.  We  made  a  point  of  always 
putting  on  the  same  stockings  and  boots  for  travelling 
in,  whether  they  had  dried  during  the  day  or  not,  and 
I  believe  it  was  only  in  five  or  six  instances  that  they 
were  not  either  still  wet  or  hard  frozen."  When  halted 
for  rest  the  boats  were  placed  alongside  each  other, 
with  their  sterns  to  the  wind,  the  snow  or  wet  cleared 
out  of  them,  and  the  sails,  held  up  by  the  bamboo 
masts  and  three  paddles,  were  placed  over  them  as 
awnings  with  the  entrance  at  the  bow. 

Progress  was  not  great,  sometimes  fifty  yards  an  hour, 
occasionally  twelve  miles  a  day,  that  is  on  the  ice,  for 
soon  it  was  apparent  that  the  distance  gained  by 
reckoning  was  greater  than  that  given  by  observation, 
and  Parry  realised  to  his  dismay  that  the  pack  was 
drifting  south  while  he  was  going  north.  But  he 
kept  on  till  on  the  21st  of  July  he  reached  82°  45', 
which  remained  the  farthest  north  for  forty -nine 
years. 


TORELL  AND   NORDENSKIOLD  43 

During  the  last  few  days  he  had  been  drifting  south 
in  the  day  almost  as  far  as  he  had  advanced  north  in 
the  night,  and,  having  used  up  half  his  provisions,  he 
reluctantly  abandoned  the  struggle  as  hopeless.  "  As 
we  travelled,"  he  says,  "by  far  the  greater  part  of  our 
distance  on  the  ice,  three,  and  not  infrequently,  five 
times  over,  we  may  safely  multiply  the  road  by  2 J ; 
so  that  our  whole  distance,  on  a  very  moderate  cal- 
culation, amounted  to  five  hundred  and  eighty  geo- 
graphical miles,  or  six  hundred  and  sixty-eight  statute 
miles  ;  being  nearly  sufficient  to  have  reached  the  Pole 
in  a  direct  line." 

In  1858  a  Swedish  expedition  under  Otto  Torell 
started  from  Hammerfest  for  Spitsbergen.  He  was 
accompanied  by  A.  Quennerstedt  and  Adolf  Erik 
Nordenskiold.  They  explored  Horn  Sound,  Bell 
Sound,  and  Green  Harbour.  In  Bell  Sound  they 
dredged  with  great  success  for  mollusca ;  they  made  a 
botanical  collection,  chiefly  of  mosses  and  lichens, 
found  tertiary  plant  fossils,  and,  in  the  North  Harbour, 
carboniferous  limestone  beds  with  the  tertiary  plant- 
bearing  strata  above  them — in  short,  Nordenskiold 
entered  upon  his  long  and  fruitful  study  of  Spits- 
bergen geology.  Three  years  afterwards  Torell  took 
out  another  expedition,  Nordenskiold  going  with  him, 
which  was  to  explore  the  northern  coast  and  then 
make  for  the  far  north ;  but  the  ice  conditions  kept 
them  in  Treurenberg  Bay,  where  they  visited  Hecla 
Cove  and  found  Parry's  flagstaff.  In  the  course  of 
their  journeys  they  noticed  in  Cross  Bay  the  first 
known  Spitsbergen  fern,  Cystopteris  fragilis ;  by  the 
side  of  a  freshwater  lake  in  VVijde  Bay  an  Alpine 


44  SPITSBERGEN 

char  was  picked  up ;  and,  at  Shoal  Point,  Torell  dis- 
covered in  a  mass  of  driftwood  a  specimen  of  the  un- 
mistakable Entada  bean,  two  and  a  quarter  inches 
across,  brought  there  from  the  West  Indies  by  the 
Gulf  Stream,  as  other  specimens  have  been  drifted  to 
European  shores. 

In  1864,  the  year  that  Elling  Carlsen  found  the 
navigation  so  open  that  he  passed  the  Northern  Gate 
and  sailed  round  Spitsbergen,  Nordenskiold,  at  the 
head  of  a  small  expedition,  was  at  work  in  Ice  Fjord, 
and,  unable  to  go  north  on  account  of  the  ice,  rounded 
South  Cape,  entered  Stor  Fjord,  visited  Edge's  Land 
and  Barents  Land,  and  from  the  summit  of  White 
Mountain,  near  Unicorn  Bay,  rediscovered  the  west 
coast  of  the  island  reported  by  Edge  two  hundred  and 
fifty  years  before.  In  1868,  as  leader  of  the  Swedish 
North  Polar  Expedition  in  the  Sofia,  he  reached 
81°  42',  in  17°  30'  east,  the  highest  latitude  then 
reached  by  a  steam  vessel,  and  his  farthest  north ;  his 
next  Polar  venture,  four  years  afterwards,  in  the 
Polhem,  ending  in  his  having  to  winter  in  Mossel  Bay, 
where  his  generous  endeavour  to  feed  one  hundred  and 
one  extra  men,  who  were  ice-bound,  on  provisions 
intended  for  his  own  twenty-four,  would  have  ended  in 
disaster  had  he  not  been  relieved  by  Leigh  Smith  in  the 
Diana. 

The  Diana  was  the  steam  yacht  built  for  James 
Lamont,  in  which,  like  Leigh  Smith,  he  cruised  for 
several  seasons  in  the  Arctic  seas,  combining  sport  with 
exploration  in  a  truly  admirable  way.  To  these  two 
yachtsmen  we  owe  much  of  our  knowledge  of  Spits- 
bergen, Novaya  Zemlya,  and  Franz  Josef  Land,  but  we 


THE   DIANA   COAL  MINE  45 

can  only  give  them  passing  mention  here.  We  must, 
however,  find  room  for  Lament's  useful  find  of  the 
coal  mine  in  Advent  Bay,  from  which  he  filled  up  the 
Dianas  bunkers.'  "  When  I  paid  a  visit  to  the  coal 
mine,"  he  says,  "  I  found  it  quite  a  busy  scene  for  a 
quiet  Arctic  shore.  The  engineer  and  fireman  directed 
the  blasting,  my  English  hands  quarried,  while  the 
Norwegians  carried  the  sacks  down  the  hill.  The  old 
mate,  the  many-sidedness  of  whose  character  I  have 
so  much  valued  on  my  various  voyages,  was  digging 
away  with  the  rest,  though  I  am  sorry  that  in  the 
sketch  his  weather-beaten  face  is  turned  away.  All 
the  rest  are  portraits,  and  the  reader  will  notice  that 
Arctic  work  is  not  done  in  the  attractive  uniforms 
known  to  Cowes  and  Ryde.  The  coal-bed  was  about 
three  feet  thick,  and  lay  very  horizontally  between 
two  layers  of  soft,  mud-coloured  limestone.  It  was 
harder  to  obtain  than  I  anticipated,  because  saturated, 
through  all  the  cracks  and  interstices,  with  water  which 
had  frozen  into  ice  more  difficult  to  break  through 
than  the  coal  itself,  thereby  rendering  these  fissures 
worse  than  useless  in  quarrying.  This  is  tertiary  coal, 
and  is  of  fair  quality,  but  contains  a  good  deal  of 
sulphur.  When  we  began  to  burn  it,  so  much  water 
and  ice  was  unavoidably  mixed  with  it  that  the 
engineers  had  to  let  it  drain  on  deck  in  the  hot  sun 
and  then  mix  it  with  an  equal  bulk  of  Scotch  coal. 
Consumed  in  this  way  the  ten  tons  obtained  in  three 
days  was  a  useful  addition  to  the  fast-dwindling  stock 
on  board." 

While  Nordenskiold  was  at  Mossel  Bay  he  attempted 
a  journey  to  the  north,  but  was  stopped  by  the  ice 


46  SPITSBERGEN 

at   Seven   Islands,   and    returned   round   North   East 
Land.      It    took    him    five   days   to   pass   across  the 
twenty-three  miles  between  Phipps  Island  and  Cape 
Platen    over  pyramids   of   angular    ice   up   to   thirty 
feet  high.     On  the  coast,  which  he  found  extending, 
as  Leigh  Smith  had  reported,  much   further  to  the 
east  than  was  shown  on  the  charts,  he  met  with  the 
inland  ice  ending  in  precipices  from  two  thousand  to 
three  thousand  feet  high.      Ascending   this  ice  they 
had  scarcely  gone  a  quarter  of  a  mile  before  one  of 
the  men  disappeared  at  a  place  where  the  surface  was 
level,  and  so  instantaneously  that  he  could  not  even 
give  a  cry  for  help.     When  they  looked  into  the  hole 
they  found  him  hanging  on  to  the  drag-line,  to  which 
he  was  fastened  with  reindeer  harness,  over  a  deep 
abyss.     Had  his  arms  slipped  out  of  the  harness,  a 
single  belt,  he  would  have  been  lost.     Along  the  level 
surface  every  puff  of  wind  drove  a  stream  of  fine  snow- 
dust,  which,  from  the  ease  with  which  it  penetrated 
everywhere,  was  as  the  fine  sand  of  the  desert  to  the 
travellers  in  the  Sahara.     By  means  of  this  fine  snow- 
dust,  steadily  driven  forward  by  the  wind,  the  upper 
part  of  the  glacier — which  did  not  consist  of  ice,  but 
of  hard  packed  blinding  white  snow — was  glazed  and 
polished  so  that  it  seemed  to  be  a  faultless,  spotless 
floor  of  white  marble,  or  rather  a  white  satin  carpet. 
Examination  showed  that  the  snow,  at  a  depth  of  four 
to  six  feet,  passed  into  ice,  being  changed  first  into  a 
stratum  of  ice  crystals,  partly  large  and  perfect,  then 
to  a  crystalline  mass  of  ice,  and  finally  to  hard  glacier 
ice,   in   which   could   still   be  observed  numerous   air 
cavities   compressed    by  the   overlying  weight;    and, 


CONWAY'S  EXPLORATIONS  47 

when,  as  the  surface  thaws,  the  pressure  of  the  en- 
closed air  exceeds  that  of  the  superincumbent  weight, 
these  cavities  break  up  with  the  peculiar  cracking 
sound  heard  in  summer  from  the  glacier  ice  that  floats 
about  in  the  fjords.  Occasionally  broad  channels  were 
crossed,  of  which  the  only  way  to  ascertain  the  depth 
was  to  lower  a  man  into  them,  and  frequently  he  had 
to  be  hoisted  up  again  without  having  reached  the 
bottom;  such  danger  areas  causing  so  circuitous  a 
route  that  much  progress  was  impossible. 

Prior  to  the  explorations  of  Sir  Martin  Conway  in 
1896,  it  was  supposed  that  this  inland  ice  extended 
over  all  the  islands  of  the  group,  an  area  exceeding 
twenty  thousand  square  miles.  He,  however,  proved 
that  so  far  as  West  Spitsbergen  was  concerned,  this 
was  not  the  case.  Crossing  it  he  found  much  of  the 
interior  a  complex  of  mountains  and  valleys,  amongst 
which  were  many  glaciers,  as  in  Central  Europe,  but 
with  no  continuous  covering  of  ice,  each  glacier  being 
a  separate  unit  with  its  own  drainage  system  and 
catchment  area,  the  valleys  boggy  and  relatively  fertile, 
the  hillsides  bare  of  snow  in  summer  up  to  more  than 
a  thousand  feet  above  sea-level.  In  the  rise  of  the 
country  from  the  sea  it  seems  to  have  come  up  as  a 
plain  which  did  not  reach  the  level  of  perpetual  snow, 
so  that  as  it  rose  it  was  cut  down  into  valleys  in  the 
usual  way  by  the  agency  of  water  pouring  off  from 
the  plateau  over  its  edge  down  a  frost-split  rock-face, 
the  valleys  gently  sloped,  the  head  necessarily  steep 
owing  to  the  face  of  the  cliff  being  stripped  off  as  the 
waterfalls  cut  their  way  back. 

Since  Nordenskiold's  first  expedition  we  have  learnt 


48  SPITSBERGEN 

much  of  the  geology  and  physical  features  of  Spits- 
bergen ;  and  we  hear  no  more  of  the  poverty  of  its 
flora  and  fauna.  Now  it  has  become  a  summer  tourist 
resort  we  are  yearly  increasing  our  knowledge  of  this 
land  of  no  thunderstorms,  for  centuries  the  largest 
uninhabited  area  on  the  globe,  the  only  considerable 
stretch  on  which  there  is  no  trace  of  human  occupation 
before  its  discovery  by  the  moderns  in  1596,  when  it 
was  found  by  Barents  and  his  companions. 


CHAPTER  III 
NOVAYA  ZEMLYA 

Van  Heemskerck  and  Barents  reach  Ice  Haven — The  ship  in  the  ice — The 
first  crew  to  winter  in  the  Arctic — The  house  the  Dutch  built — The  hears 
— The  foxes — Intense  cold — Twelfth  Eve  rejoicings — Preparations  for 
departure — Death  of  Barents — The  boat  voyage — Meeting  with  Rijp — 
Admiral  Jacob  Van  Heemskerck — Carlsen  at  Ice  Haven — Finds  the  house 
as  described  by  De  Veer — The  relics  at  the  Hague — Gardiner  finds  the 
powder-flask — Gundersen  finds  the  translation  of  the  voyage  of  Pet  and 
Jackman — Second  voyage  of  Hudson — His  third  voyage — De  Vlamingh 
— Russian  explorers. 

WE  left  Barents  parting  company  with  Rijp  at 
Bear  Island,  Rijp  bound  northwards.  Barents, 
taking  his  vessel  eastwards,  struck  Novaya  Zemlya  at 
Loms  Bay,  near  Cross  Bay,  and  bearing  north-east- 
wards reached  the  Orange  Islands  and  rounded  Cape 
Mauritius.  Steering  south  he  got  down  into  Ice  Haven, 
where  at  length,  says  De  Veer,  "  the  ice  began  to  drive 
with  such  force  that  we  were  enclosed  round  about 
therewith,  and  yet  we  sought  all  the  means  we  could  to 
get  out,  but  it  was  all  in  vain  :  and  at  that  time  we  had 
like  to  have  lost  three  men  that  were  upon  the  ice  to 
make  way  for  the  ship,  if  the  ice  had  held  the  course  it 
went ;  but  as  we  drove  back  again,  and  the  ice  also 
whereon  our  men  stood,  they  being  nimble,  as  the  ship 
drove  by  them,  one  of  them  caught  hold  of  the  beak 
head,  another  upon  the  shrouds,  and  the  third  upon  the 
mainbrace  that  hung  out  behind,  and  so  by  great 

E  49 


50  NOVAYA   ZEMLYA 

adventure  by  the  hold  they  took  they  got  into  the  ship 
again,  for  which  they  thanked  God  with  all  their 
hearts."  The  same  evening,  that  of  the  26th  of  August, 
1596,  they  reached  the  west  of  Ice  Haven — now  known 
as  Barents  Bay — where  they  were  forced  to  remain, 
being  the  first  crew  on  record  to  spend  a  winter  in  the 
Arctic  regions  and  survive  to  tell  the  story. 

To  begin  with,  the  ice  gathered  round  the  ship  and 
lifted  her  bow  four  feet  out  of  the  water.  Endeavour- 
ing to  right  her  by  clearing  the  ice  away,  Barents  was 
on  his  knees  measuring  the  height  she  had  to  fall  when 
the  ice  broke  with  "  such  a  noise  and  so  great  a  crack 
that  they  thought  verily  they  were  all  cast  away."  As 
she  lay  upright  again  they  tried  in  vain  with  crowbars 
and  other  tools  to  break  off  the  piled-up  ice,  and  next 
day  in  a  heavy  snow  the  pressure  became  such  that  the 
whole  ship  was  borne  up  and  so  squeezed  that  "  all  that 
was  both  about  and  in  it  began  to  crack,  so  that  it 
seemed  to  burst  in  a  hundred  pieces,  which  was  most 
fearful  both  to  see  and  hear,  and  made  all  the  hair  of 
our  heads  to  rise  upright  with  fear."  The  grip  con- 
tinuing, the  vessel  was  driven  up  four  or  five  feet  and 
the  rudder  squeezed  off,  which  was  replaced  by  a  new 
one,  when  she  sank  back  into  the  water  a  few  hours 
afterwards  owing  to  the  ice  drifting  clear  for  a  while. 
Thus  matters  went  on  for  a  little  time,  the  ship  being 
alternately  lifted  and  released. 

On  the  llth  of  September,  as  there  was  no  hope  of 
escape,  it  was  decided  to  build  a  house  wherein  to 
spend  the  winter,  and  in  seeking  for  a  suitable  position, 
a  mass  of  driftwood — "  trees,  roots  and  all " — was  dis- 
covered, "  driven  ashore  from  Tartaria,  Muscovia,  or 


THE   HOUSE   THE   DUTCH   BUILT  51 

elsewhere,"  for  there  were  no  trees  growing  on  the 
land,  "wherewith,"  says  De  Veer,  "we  were  much 
comforted,  being  in  good  hope  that  God  would  show 
us  some  further  favour;  for  that  wood  served  us  not 
only  to  build  our  house,  but  also  to  burn  and  serve  us 
all  the  winter  long;  otherwise  without  all  doubt  we 
had  died  there  miserably  with  extreme  cold." 

The  timber  was  collected  and  piled  up  in  heaps  that 
it  might  not  be  hidden  under  the  snow,  and  two  sledges 
were  made  on  which  to  drag  it  to  the  site  of  the  house. 
This  was  heavy  work  in  which  all  took  part,  four  of 
them  in  turn  remaining  by  the  ship,  there  being  thir- 
teen men  to  each  party,  five  to  each  sledge,  with  three 
to  help  and  lift  the  wood  behind  "  to  make  us  draw  the 
better  and  with  more  ease,"  and  at  the  end  of  the  first 
week  of  it  the  carpenter  died,  so  that  only  sixteen  were 
left.  But  the  wood  was  brought  along  day  after  day, 
some  to  build  with,  some  for  fuel ;  and  the  house  was 
built,  the  frost  so  hard  at  times  that  "  as  we  put  a  nail 
into  our  mouths,  as  carpenters  do,  there  would  ice  hang 
thereon  when  we  took  it  out  again  and  made  the  blood 
follow";  and  when  a  great  fire  was  made  to  soften  the 
ground,  in  order  that  earth  might  be  dug  to  shovel 
round  the  house,  "  it  was  all  lost  labour  for  the  earth 
was  so  hard  and  frozen  so  deep  that  we  could  not  thaw 
it,  and  it  would  have  cost  us  too  much  wood." 

The  house  was  roofed  with  deals  obtained  by  break- 
ing up  the  lower  deck  of  the  fore  part  of  the  ship,  and, 
to  make  it  weather-tight,  it  was  covered  with  a  sail  on 
which  afterwards  shingle  was  spread  to  keep  it  from 
being  blown  off;  and  the  materials  of  the  cabin  yielded 
the  wood  for  the  door.  Inside,  the  house  was  made  as 


52  NOVAYA   ZEMLYA 

comfortable  as  possible,  as  shown  in  the  illustration 
given  in  De  Veer's  book  in  1598.  Low  shelves,  with 
partitions  between,  along  the  side  served  for  sleeping 
places  ;  a  cask  on  end  with  a  square  hole  like  a  window 
in  the  upper  half  was  frequently  used  as  a  bath ;  a 
striking  clock  and  a  time-glass  marked  the  passing  of 
the  hours;  the  large  fire  in  the  centre  with  its  frame 
and  trivet  and  spit  and  copper  pots  and  other  kitchen 
utensils  served  for  warmth  and  cooking ;  and  over  the 
fire  hung  a  large  lamp  beneath  the  chimney,  which 
terminated  outside  in  a  cask  giving  it  the  appearance  of 
a  crow's  nest  ashore. 

While  the  house  was  building,  and  as  long  as  the 
sun  was  above  the  horizon,  there  was  much  trouble 
with  the  bears,  whose  daily  visits  were  always  produc- 
tive of  excitement.  On  the  26th  of  October,  for 
instance,  the  day  after  all  the  crew  first  slept  in  the 
house,  when  the  men  had  loaded  the  last  sledge  and 
stood  in  the  track-ropes  ready  to  draw  it  to  the  house, 
Van  Heemskerck  caught  sight  of  three  coming  towards 
them  from  behind  the  ship.  The  men  jumped  out  of 
the  track-ropes,  and  as  fortunately  two  halberds  lay 
upon  the  sledge,  Van  Heemskerck  took  one  and  De 
Veer  the  other,  while  the  rest  ran  to  the  ship,  "  and  as 
they  ran  one  of  them  fell  into  a  crevice  in  the  ice, 
which  grieved  us  much,  for  we  thought  the  bears  would 
have  run  unto  him  to  devour  him,"  but  they  made 
straight  after  the  others  instead.  "  Meantime  we  and 
the  man  that  fell  into  the  cleft  of  ice  took  our  advan- 
tage and  got  into  the  ship  on  the  other  side ;  which  the 
bears  perceiving,  they  came  fiercely  towards  us  that 
had  no  arms  to  defend  us  withal  but  only  the  two 


THE   BEARS  AND   THE   FOXES  53 

halberds,  gave  them  work  to  do  by  throwing  billets  of 
firewood  and  other  things  at  them,  and  every  time  we 
threw  they  ran  after  them  as  a  dog  does  at  a  stone  that 
has  been  cast  at  him.  Meantime  we  sent  a  man  down 
into  the  caboose  to  strike  fire  and  another  to  fetch 
pikes ;  but  we  could  get  no  fire,  and  so  we  had  no 
means  to  shoot"— their  firearms  being  matchlocks. 
"At  the  last  as  the  bears  came  fiercely  upon  us  we 
struck  one  of  them  with  a  halberd  on  the  snout,  where- 
with she  gave  back  when  she  felt  herself  hurt  and  went 
away,  which  the  other  two,  that  were  not  so  large  as 
she,  perceiving,  ran  away." 

When  the  bears  had  gone  and  the  long  night  set  in, 
their  place  was  taken  by  the  white  foxes,  many  of 
these  being  caught  in  traps  and  furnishing  skins  for 
clothes  and  flesh  for  meat — "not  unlike  that  of  the 
rabbit"  —that  was  "as  grateful  as  venison."  The  19th 
of  November  was  a  great  day.  A  chest  of  linen  was 
opened  and  divided  among  the  men  for  shirts,  "  for 
they  had  need  of  them."  Next  day  they  washed  their 
shirts,  having  evidently  made  the  new  ones  in  a  hurry, 
and,  says  De  Veer,  "  it  was  so  cold  that  when  we  had 
washed  and  wrung  them  they  presently  froze  so  stiff 
(out  of  the  warm  water)  that  although  we  laid  them 
by  a  great  fire  the  side  that  lay  next  the  fire  thawed, 
but  the  other  side  was  hard  frozen,  so  that  we  should 
sooner  have  torn  them  in  sunder  than  have  opened 
them,  whereby  we  were  forced  to  put  them  into  the 
boiling  water  again  to  thaw  them,  it  was  so  exceeding 
cold." 

On  the  3rd  of  December  and   the  two   following 
days  it  was  so  cold  that  as  the  men  lay  in  their  bunks 


54  NOVAYA   ZEMLYA 

they  could  hear  the  ice  cracking  in  the  sea  two  miles 
away,  and  thought  that  icebergs  were  breaking  on 
each  other;  and  as  they  had  not  so  great  a  fire  as 
usual  owing  to  the  smoke  "  it  froze  so  sore  within  the 
house  that  the  walls  and  the  roof  thereof  were  frozen 
two  fingers  thick  with  ice,  even  in  the  bunks  in  which 
we  lay.  All  those  three  days  while  we  could  not  go 
out  by  reason  of  the  foul  weather  we  set  up  the  sand- 
glass of  twelve  hours,  and  when  it  was  run  out  we  set 
it  up  again,  still  watching  it  lest  we  should  miss  our 
time.  For  the  cold  was  so  great  that  our  clock  was 
frozen  and  would  not  go,  although  we  hung  more 
weight  on  it  than  before." 

The  snow  fell  until  it  was  so  deep  round  the  house 
that  on  Christmas  Day  they  heard  foxes  running  over 
the  roof ;  and  the  last  day  of  the  year  was  so  cold  that 
"the  fire  almost  cast  no  heat,  for  as  we  put  our  feet 
to  the  fire  we  burnt  our  hose  before  we  could  feel  the 
heat,  so  that  we  had  work  enough  to  do  to  patch  our 
hose."  On  the  4th  of  January,  "to  know  where  the 
wind  blew  we  thrust  a  half  pike  out  of  the  chimney 
with  a  little  cloth  or  feather  upon  it;  but  we  had  to 
look  at  it  immediately  the  wind  caught  it,  for  as  soon 
as  we  thrust  it  out  it  was  frozen  as  hard  as  a  piece  of 
wood  and  could  not  go  about  or  stir  with  the  wind,  so 
that  we  said  to  one  another  how  fearfully  cold  it  must 
be  out  of  doors." 

Next  day,  being  Twelfth  Eve,  on  which  foreigners, 
according  to  the  old  practice,  hold  the  festivities  now 
customary  in  England  on  the  following  day,  the  men 
asked  Van  Heemskerck  that  they  might  enjoy  them- 
selves, "  and  so  that  night  we  made  merry  and  drank 


PREPARATIONS  FOR  DEPARTURE      55 

to  the  three  kings.  And  therewith  we  had  two  pounds 
of  meal,  which  we  had  taken  to  make  paste  for  the 
cartridges  wherewith,  of  which  we  now  made  pancakes 
with  oil,  and  to  every  man  a  white  biscuit,  which  we 
sopped  in  wine.  And  so  supposing  that  we  were  in 
our  own  country  and  amongst  our  friends  it  comforted 
us  as  well  as  if  we  had  made  a  great  banquet  in  our 
own  house.  And  we  also  distributed  tickets,  and  our 
gunner  was  king  of  Nova  Zembla,  which  is  at  least 
eight  hundred  miles  long  and  lieth  between  two  seas." 

In  time  the  sun  reappeared — as  also  the  bears— and 
the  rigours  of  the  winter  relaxing,  the  men,  on  the 
9th  of  May,  applied  to  Barents  asking  him  to  speak 
to  Van  Heemskerck  with  a  view  to  preparing  for 
departure.  This,  after  two  other  appeals,  he  did  on 
the  15th  of  May,  Van  Heemskerck's  answer  being 
that,  if  the  ship  were  not  free  by  the  end  of  the  month, 
he  would  get  ready  to  go  away  in  the  boats.  The  two 
boats,  or,  to  be  exact,  the  boat  and  the  herring  skute, 
were  then  repaired  and  made  suitable  for  a  long  sea 
voyage,  and  on  the  13th  of  June  were  in  proper  con- 
dition with  all  their  stores  ready.  Then  Van  Heems- 
kerck, "  seeing  that  it  was  open  water  and  a  good  west 
wind,  came  back  to  the  house  again,  and  there  he 
spake  unto  Willem  Barents  (that  had  been  long  sick) 
and  showed  him  that  he  thought  it  good  (seeing  it  was 
a  fit  time)  to  go  from  thence,  and  they  then  resolved 
jointly  with  the  ship's  company  to  take  the  boat  and 
the  skute  down  to  the  water  side,  and  in  the  name  of 
God  to  begin  our  voyage  to  sail  from  Nova  Zembla. 
Then  Willem  Barents  wrote  a  letter,  which  he  put 
into  a  powder  flask  and  hanged  it  up  in  the  chimney, 


56  NOVAYA  ZEMLYA 

showing  how  we  came  out  of  Holland  to  sail  to  the 
kingdom  of  China,  and  what  had  happened  to  us." 
Then  Barents  was  taken  down  to  the  shore  on  a  sledge 
and  put  into  one  boat,  the  other  sick  man,  Andriesz, 
being  placed  in  the  other,  and  "with  a  west-north-west 
wind  and  an  indifferent  open  water  "  they  set  sail  on  a 
voyage  of  over  fifteen  hundred  miles  among  the  ice, 
over  the  ice,  and  through  the  sea. 

Barents,  though  they  little  suspected  it,  had  but  a 
few  days  to  live.  As  they  passed  the  northernmost 
cape  of  Novaya  Zemlya,  "  Gerrit,"  he  said  to  De  Veer, 
"if  we  are  near  the  Ice  Point,  just  lift  me  up  again. 
I  must  see  that  point  once  more."  They  were  amongst 
the  ice  floes  again  ;  soon  they  had  to  make  fast  to  one  ; 
and  then  they  became  shut  in  and  forced  to  stay  there. 
Next  day  their  only  means  of  safety  lay  in  hauling 
their  boats  up  on  to  a  floe,  taking  the  sick  men  out  on 
to  the  ice  and  putting  the  clothes  and  other  things 
under  them ;  but  after  mending  the  boats,  which  had 
been  much  bruised  and  crushed,  they  drifted  into  a 
little  open  water  and  got  afloat.  On  the  20th  of  June, 
about  eight  in  the  morning  it  became  evident  that 
Andriesz  was  nearing  his  end.  "Methinks,"  said 
Barents,  in  the  other  boat,  when  he  heard  of  it,  "  with 
me  too  it  will  not  last  long."  But  still  his  companions 
did  not  realise  how  ill  he  was,  and  talked  on  uncon- 
cernedly. Then  he  looked  at  the  little  chart  which 
De  Veer  had  made  of  the  voyage.  Putting  it  down, 
he  said,  "  Gerrit,  give  me  something  to  drink."  And 
no  sooner  did  he  drink  than  he  suddenly  died.  Thus 
passed  away  their  chief  guide  and  only  pilot,  than 
whom  none  better  ever  sailed  the  northern  seas. 


VAN   HEEMSKERCICS   BOAT   VOYAGE  57 

Working  their  way  down  the  west  coast  of  the  long 
island,  putting  in  every  now  and  then  in  search  of  birds 
and  eggs,  constantly  in  peril  from  the  floating  ice  and 
the  bears,  they  slowly  came  south.  When  passing 
Admiralty  Peninsula  they  had  to  deal  with  a  danger 
of  their  own  causing.  They  sighted  about  two  hun- 
dred walruses  upon  one  of  the  floes.  Sailing  close  to 
them  they  drove  them  off,  "which,"  says  De  Veer, 
"had  almost  cost  us  dear,  for  they,  being  mighty 
strong  sea  monsters,  swam  towards  us  round  about  our 
boats  with  a  great  noise  as  if  they  would  have  devoured 
us  ;  but  we  escaped  from  them  by  reason  that  we  had  a 
good  gale  of  wind,  yet  it  was  not  wisely  done  of  us  to 
waken  sleeping  wolves." 

Day  by  day  De  Veer  tells  the  story  of  that  adven- 
turous voyage,  with  its  long  succession  of  dangers  and 
disappointments,  until  they  reached  the  mainland  and 
sent  the  Lapland  messenger  to  Kola,  who  returned 
with  a  letter  from  Jan  Corneliszoon  Rijp,  who  at 
first  they  could  not  believe  was  the  old  friend  from 
whom  they  had  parted  at  Bear  Island ;  and  more 
briefly  he  continues  the  story  until  Amsterdam  was 
reached  on  the  1st  of  November,  when  the  survivors,  in 
the  same  clothes  they  wore  in  their  winter  quarters, 
fur  caps  and  white  fox-skins,  walked  up  to  the  house  of 
Pieter  Hasselaer  to  report  themselves  on  arrival  and 
received  the  hearty  welcome  they  deserved. 

Though  Van  Heemskerck  had  failed  to  make  the 
passage  to  the  east  by  way  of  the  north,  he  was 
perhaps  destined  for  greater  fame  on  the  far  less 
rigorous  route.  Like  Nelson  he  went  on  an  Arctic 
expedition  that  failed,  and  then  secured  a  place  in 


58  NOVAYA   ZEMLYA 

history  by  a  sea-fight  in  Spanish  waters,  for  which  his 
countrymen  will  never  forget  him.  He  it  was  who 
as  Vice- Admiral  of  Holland  fought  the  Spanish  fleet 
at  Gibraltar  in  the  decisive  battle  of  the  25th  of 
April,  1607,  in  which  with  his  twenty-six  vessels  he 
attacked  Juan  Alvarez  Davila's  twenty  ships  and  ten 
galleons.  Early  in  the  struggle  he  had  his  leg  swept 
off  by  a  cannon  shot,  but  he  remained  on  deck  till  he 
died,  gaining  the  complete  victory  which  rendered  his 
countrymen  free  from  hindrance  on  the  road  to  the 
Indies  round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  of  which  for 
so  many  years  they  made  such  profitable  use.  It  is 
customary  to  give  all  the  credit  of  the  Arctic  voyage 
to  Barents  on  the  ground  that  his  captain  was  no 
sailor,  but  Holland  knows  no  better  sailor  than  Jacob 
Van  Heemskerck  of  Gibraltar  Bay. 

On  the  9th  of  September,  1871,  Captain  Elling 
Carlsen,  sailing  in  the  Barents  Sea,  which  he  had 
entered  round  Icy  Cape,  landed  in  Ice  Haven  and 
found  the  house  just  as  De  Veer  had  described  it. 
There  it  had  stood  in  cold  storage  for  274  years,  never 
having  been  entered  by  human  foot  since  Van  Heems- 
kerck had  shut  the  door.  The  bunks,  the  table,  the 
bath,  the  clock,  in  short  everything,  all  in  order, 
as  the  orderly  Dutchmen  had  left  it.  Never  did  a 
voyage  book  receive  such  ample  verification  ;  never  did 
the  description  of  an  island  home  stand  the  test  better. 

Carlsen,  to  begin  with,  knew  nothing  of  De  Veer  or 
Barents,  but  he  set  to  work  in  a  conscientious  way 
and  recorded  the  results  like  a  true  archaeologist. 
"  Thursday,  14th,"  he  wrote  in  his  log,  "  Calm  with 
clear  sky.  Four  o'clock  in  the  morning  we  went 


THE   HOUSE   REVISITED  59 

ashore  further  to  investigate  the  wintering  place.  On 
digging  we  found  again  several  objects,  such  as  drum- 
sticks, a  hilt  of  a  sword,  and  spears.  Altogether  it 
seemed  that  the  people  had  been  equipped  in  a  warlike 
manner,  but  nothing  was  found  which  could  indicate 
the  presence  of  human  remains.  On  the  beach  we 
found  pieces  of  wood  which  had  formerly  belonged  to 
some  part  of  a  ship,  for  which  reason  I  believe  that  a 
vessel  has  been  wrecked  there,  the  crew  of  which  built 
the  house  with  the  materials  of  the  wreck  and  after- 
wards betook  themselves  to  boats." 

Bringing  away  a  very  large  number  of  articles,  he 
resumed  his  voyage  and  landed  at  Hammerfest,  where 
Mr.  E.  C.  Lister  Kay,  who  happened  to  be  there  on  a 
yachting  trip,  bought  them,  thinking  they  would  be  re- 
purchased from  him,  at  the  price  he  gave,  for  one  of  our 
own  museums.  In  this  he  was  disappointed,  and  the 
collection  was  taken  down  to  his  house  in  Dorsetshire, 
where  Count  Bylandt,  the  Dutch  Ambassador,  happen- 
ing to  hear  of  it,  called  and  bought  it  for  his  Govern- 
ment, who  placed  it  at  the  Hague  in  a  room,  the 
exact  imitation  of  that  in  Novaya  Zemlya. 

In  July,  1876,  Mr.  Charles  Gardiner,  another  Eng 
lish  yachtsman,  when  on  a  cruise  in  the  Glow-worm  in 
Barents  Sea,  made  a  call  at  the  house  and  brought 
away  many  other  relics,  which  he  presented  to  the 
Dutch,  to  be  added  to  those  at  the  Hague ;  and 
among  them  was  the  powder-flask  hung  in  the 
chimney,  containing  the  paper  mentioned  by  De  Veer. 
The  previous  August  Captain  Gundersen  had  been 
there  in  the  Norwegian  schooner  Regina.  In  one  of 
the  chests  he  found  two  charts  and  what  he  described 


60  NOVAYA   ZEMLYA 

as  Barents's  Journal.  The  journal  proved  to  be  a 
manuscript  Dutch  translation  of  the  story  of  the 
voyage  in  1580  of  Arthur  Pet  and  Charles  Jackman. 

In  1608,  eleven  years  after  Barents  died,  Henry 
Hudson,  in  the  Muscovy  Company's  service,  was  sent 
to  China  by  the  north-east.  He  sailed  on  the  22nd  of 
April  from  St.  Katharine's,  near  the  Tower  of  London, 
and  on  the  3rd  of  June  passed  the  North  Cape  on  his 
way  to  Novaya  Zemlya,  which  he  reached  near  Cape 
Britwin  twenty-three  days  afterwards.  For  some  con- 
siderable distance  he  had  skirted  the  ice  pack,  vainly 
endeavouring  to  get  through  to  the  northward  and 
enter  the  Kara  Sea  round  the  Orange  Islands. 

This  being  impracticable  he  ranged  southwards  look- 
ing for  a  passage  through  at  Kostin  Shar,  which  in  the 
Dutch  map  he  had  with  him  was  marked  as  a  strait 
and  proved  to  be  a  bay.  Had  he  been  able  to  go  a 
little  further  north  than  Cape  Britwin  he  might  have 
found  that  Matyushin  Shar,  like  a  rift  in  the  rocks, 
divides  the  long  island  in  half,  though  at  that  early 
season  the  ice  would  have  probably  been  blocking  it. 
From  Kostin  or  thereabouts  he  departed  for  home,  his 
voyage  failing  almost  at  the  outset,  owing  to  his  being 
two  months  too  early. 

While  off  the  coast  he  sent  his  boat  ashore  several 
times.  "  Generally,"  he  says,  "  all  the  land  of  Nova 
Zembla  that  we  have  yet  seen  is  to  a  man's  eye  a 
pleasant  land ;  much  main  high  land  with  no  snow  on 
it,  looking  in  some  places  green,  and  deer  feeding 
thereon ;  and  the  hills  are  partly  covered  with  snow 
and  partly  bare"  —rather  a  different  picture  from  that 
given  by  De  Veer  of  what  it  was  like  in  the  winter. 


HUDSON'S  THIRD   VOYAGE  61 

De  Veer,  too,  had  committed  himself  to  the  statement 
that  there  were  no  deer  in  the  country,  but  here  were 
Hudson's  men  frequently  coming  upon  their  traces,  and 
on  the  2nd  of  July  reporting  that  they  had  seen  "  a 
herd  of  white  deer,  ten  in  a  company,"  bringing  on 
board  with  them  a  white  lock  of  deer's  hair  in  proof 
thereof. 

On  his  return  Hudson  left  the  service  of  the  Mus- 
covy Company.  He  went  to  Holland,  and,  early  in 
April,  1609,  was  sent  out  by  the  Amsterdam  Chamber 
of  the  Dutch  East  India  Company.  On  the  5th  of 
May  he  rounded  the  North  Cape,  making  for  Novaya 
Zemlya,  and  a  few  days  afterwards  reached  the  ice. 
Here,  according  to  Dutch  accounts,  his  men  mutinied, 
but  what  happened  during  the  trouble  is  not  recorded. 
Whether  it  was  really  owing  to  a  mutiny,  or,  as  is  by 
no  means  improbable,  to  secret  instructions  received  at 
his  departure,  Hudson,  on  the  14th,  made  sail  for  the 
North  Cape,  passed  it  on  the  19th,  when  he  observed  a 
spot  on  the  sun,  and  then  went  off  westwards  to  New- 
foundland, making  direct  apparently  for  the  mouth  of 
the  river  now  bearing  his  name,  which  was  discovered 
by  Verrazano  in  March,  1524,  and  surveyed  by  Gomez 
in  the  following  year,  and  was  at  the  time  of  Hudson's 
visit  British  territory. 

The  reason  for  this  astonishing  change  of  route  was, 
perhaps,  that  on  some  of  the  charts  of  the  period,  as  on 
Michael  Lock's  planisphere,  this  river,  the  Rio  de  Gamas 
or  Rio  Grande  of  the  Spaniards,  was  made  to  com- 
municate with  what  seems  to  be  intended  for  Lake 
Ontario,  and  this  with  the  other  lakes  to  the  westward 
was  widened  out  into  the  waterway  to  the  South  Sea. 


62  NOVAYA   ZEMLYA 

Thus  Hudson  drops  out  of  our  story  at  his  first 
mutiny,  for  he  did  not  cross  the  Arctic  Circle  on  his 
fourth  voyage,  when  his  second  mutiny  ended  his  career 
in  the  bay  that  bears  his  name,  which,  like  the  river 
and  the  strait,  was  indicated  on  the  maps  years  before 
he  went  there. 

In  1664  Willem  de  Vlamingh,  the  Dutch  navigator, 
or — to  be  cautious — the  namesake  of  the  Dutch  navi- 
gator, who  thirty-one  years  afterwards  found  Dirk 
Hartog's  plate  and  named  Swan  River  in  West  Aus- 
tralia after  the  black  swans,  was  in  these  regions  and 
rounded  Novaya  Zemlya  into  the  Kara  Sea,  reaching  so 
far  north  that  if  his  recorded  latitude  be  correct  he 
must  have  sighted  the  Franz  Josef  archipelago,  and, 
contrary  to  the  tendency  of  Arctic  explorers,  mistaken 
land  for  a  bank  of  mist  or  a  group  of  icebergs.  After 
him  neither  Dutch  nor  English  delay  us,  the  opening 
up  of  this  continuation  of  the  Urals  being  left  to  the 
Russians,  who  found  it  first  and  named  it — Novaya 
Zemlya  meaning  simply  New  Land. 

For  years  it  was  left  to  the  Samoyeds  and  the  walrus 
hunters,  whose  persistent  reports  of  deposits  of  silver  in 
its  cliffs  led  to  Loschkin's  making  his  way  round  it  and 
spending  two  winters  on  its  east  coast.  In  1768  Ros- 
mysslof,  also  on  silver  bent,  wintered  in  Matyushin 
Shar,  that  wonderful  waterway,  ninety  fathoms  deep, 
bounded  by  high  hills  and  precipitous  cliffs,  winding  so 
sharply  that  ships  have  been  into  it  for  a  dozen  miles  or 
so  and  seeing  no  passage  ahead  have  come  out  again  to 
seek  it  elsewhere.  In  1807  came  Pospeloff,  with  Lud- 
low  the  mining  engineer,  to  settle  the  silver  question 
once  for  all,  and  settle  it  they  did  by  showing  that 


THE   RUSSIAN   EXPLORERS  63 

everywhere  the  so-called  silver  was  either  talc  or  mica, 
and  naming  Silver  Bay  ironically  in  memory  thereof. 
Fourteen  years  afterwards  Liitke  surveyed  the  west 
coast,  continuing  during  the  next  three  summers ;  and 
in  1832  Pachtussoff  arrived  to  undergo  in  the  course  of 
his  really  admirable  work  the  hardships  and  privations 
of  which  he  died. 


CHAPTER  IV 
FRANZ  JOSEF  LAND 

Austro-Hungarian  expedition  of  1872 — The  voyage  as  planned — The  drift  of 
the  Tegetthoff—The  polyglot  crew — Discovery  of  Franz  Josef  Land — 
Payer's  description  of  an  aurora — The  sledge  journeys — Crown  Prince 
Rudolf  Land — Cape  Fligely  reached — Abandonment  of  the  Tegetthojf— 
The  boat  voyage  to  Cape  Britwin — Leigh  Smith's  expeditions — Loss  of 
the  Eira — The  retreat  in  the  boats — Jackson  in  Franz  Josef  Land — His 
excellent  survey  work — The  Italian  expedition  under  the  Duke  of  the 
Abruzzi— Cagni  attempts  to  reach  the  Pole  and  is  stopped  at  86°  34' — 
The  return  journey. 

IN  1871  Weyprecht  and  Payer  were  out  in  the 
cutter  Isbjorn,  pioneering  for  their  intended  voyage 
to  the  eastward,  which  started  next  year  in  the  Tegett- 
hojf, the  famous  Austro-Hungarian  attempt  of  1872 
which  may  be  described  as  an  unintentional  voyage  of 
unexpected  discovery.  The  amount  of  credit  due  to 
a  man  who  starts  to  find  one  thing  and  lights  upon 
another  has  always  been  a  contentious  matter,  and 
this  expedition  afforded  an  extreme  case  for  such 
speculations.  The  plan  was  to  go  east-north-east,  the 
wintering  places  being  undetermined,  though  they 
might  be  Cape  Chelyuskin,  the  New  Siberian  Islands, 
or  any  land  that  might  be  discovered ;  and  a  return 
to  Europe  through  Bering  Strait  lay  among  the 
possibilities  of  the  venture,  as  an  endeavour  was  to 
be  made  to  reach  the  coast  of  Siberia  in  boats  and 
penetrate  south  down  one  of  the  large  rivers  of 

64 


THE  WONDERFUL  DRIFT  65 

Northern  Asia.  What  happened  was  that  during  the 
afternoon  of  the  20th  of  August,  when  off  the  north- 
west coast  of  Novaya  Zemlya  in  76°  22'  north,  63°  3' 
east,  the  ship  was  run  into  an  iee-hole  and  made  fast 
to  a  floe,  and  during  the  night  the  ice,  instead  of  part- 
ing asunder,  closed  in  and  imprisoned  her,  so  that  she 
never  steamed  or  sailed  again.  In  the  ice  and  on  the 
ice  she  lay  perfectly  helpless,  drifting  with  the  floe, 
and  still  in  its  grip  when  she  was  abandoned  by  her 
crew  on  the  20th  of  May,  two  years  afterwards. 

It  was  a  wonderful  drift.  North-easterly  in  the 
main  to  begin  with,  then  north-westerly,  then  easterly 
to  about  73°,  then  north,  then  west,  in  and  out  and 
roundabout,  till  they  reached  much  the  same  longitude 
as  they  started  from  and  then  with  a  general  tendency  to 
the  northward.  Autumn  passed  away ;  the  Polar  night 
set  in ;  and  still  they  drifted  ice-bound — a  miscellaneous 
company  representative  of  the  polyglot  empire ;  "on 
board  the  Tegetthoff"  says  Payer,  "  are  heard  all  the 
languages  of  our  country,  German,  Italian,  Slavonic, 
and  Hungarian ;  Italian  is,  however,  the  language  in 
which  all  orders  are  given,"  to  which  we  should  add 
the  Norwegian  of  Olaf  Carlsen,  the  icemaster.  During 
the  winter  there  was  enough  of  occupation  and  amuse- 
ment, though  private  theatricals  were  impossible,  as 
they  would  have  had  to  be  given  in  four  languages  to 
be  intelligible  to  the  audience. 

The  short  summer  came  and  went,  and  August  had 
almost  gone  when — it  was  on  the  30th,  in  79°  43' — there 
came  a  surprise.  The  rays  of  the  sun  were  fitfully 
breaking  through  the  gloom  when  suddenly  the  glid- 
ing mists  rolled  up  like  a  curtain,  revealing  in  the 


66  FRANZ  JOSEF  LAND 

north-west  the  outlines  of  a  rocky  coast,  which  in  a 
few  minutes  grew  into  a  radiant  Alpine  land.     The 
shore,  however,  was  unattainable,  as  a  rush  over  the 
icefield  soon  showed,  but  from  the  edge  of  the  fissure 
that  barred  any  further  progress  they  could  make  out 
its  hills  and  glaciers  and  imagine  the  green  pastures  of 
its  valleys.     They  called  it  Kaiser  Franz  Josef's  Land, 
and  along  it  they  drifted  during  September  till  its  out- 
lines faded  as  the  wind  began  to  drive  the  floe  to  the 
south.     But  at  the  end  of  the  month  the  direction  of 
the  floe  changed  to  the  north-west,  taking  the  Tegett- 
hoff  up  to  79°  58',  her  highest  north,  near  enough  to 
one  of  the  islands  for  an  effort  to  be  made  to  land. 
Six  started  from  the  ship  over  the  grinding,  groaning, 
broken  walls  of  ice,  and  when  they  were  out  of  sight 
of  the  ship  a  mist  settled  down  which  cut  them  off 
from  the  sight  of  land  and  then  so  closely  enwrapped 
them   that   they   could   see   nothing.     Advance   they 
found  hopeless,  and  as  they  returned  they  lost  their 
way  and  were  saved  by  the  sagacity  of  a  dog  they  had 
with  them.     All  through  October  the  drift  continued, 
and  it  was  not  until  forenoon  of  the  1st  of  November, 
two   months    after    sighting    the    country,   that  they 
managed  to  get  ashore.     This  was  on  Wilczek  Island 
in    the    same    longitude   as    Admiralty   Peninsula    in 
Novaya  Zemlya,  and  in  the  same  latitude  as  Mossel 
Bay  in  Spitsbergen. 

The  sun  had  retired  for  the  winter  nine  days  before, 
and  it  was  by  the  light  of  the  moon  that  they  first 
explored  the  unknown  country.  Little  could  be  done, 
and,  as  it  was  much  too  late  for  attempting  to  shift 
from  the  ship  to  the  shore,  the  winter  had  to  be  spent 


THE   AURORA    OF  THE   COMING   STORM        67 

on  board  as  the  other  had  been.  Through  this  winter, 
as  before,  the  auroral  displays  were  remarkable,  and 
they  are  excellently  described  by  Payer.  Of  one  of 
them,  he  says :  "  It  is  now  eight  o'clock  at  night,  the 
hour  of  the  greatest  intensity  of  the  northern  lights. 
For  a  moment  some  bundles  of  rays  only  are  to  be 
seen  in  the  sky.  In  the  south  a  faint,  scarcely  observ- 
able, band  lies  close  to  the  horizon.  All  at  once  it 
rises  rapidly  and  spreads  east  and  west.  The  waves 
of  light  begin  to  dart  and  shoot ;  some  rays  mount 
towards  the  zenith.  For  a  short  time  it  remains 
stationary,  then  suddenly  springs  to  life.  The  waves 
of  light  drive  violently  from  east  to  west ;  the  edges 
assume  a  deep  red  and  green  colour  and  dance  up  and 
down.  The  rays  shoot  up  more  rapidly  ;  they  become 
shorter ;  all  rise  together  and  approach  nearer  and 
nearer  to  the  magnetic  Pole.  It  looks  as  if  there  were 
a  race  among  the  rays,  and  that  each  aspired  to  reach 
the  Pole  first.  And  now  the  point  is  reached,  and 
they  shoot  out  on  every  side,  to  the  north  and  the 
south,  to  the  east  and  the  west.  Do  the  rays  shoot 
from  above  downwards,  or  from  below  upwards  ?  Who 
can  distinguish  ?  From  the  centre  issues  a  sea  of 
flames.  Is  that  sea  red,  white,  or  green  ?  Who  can 
say  ? — it  is  all  three  colours  at  the  same  moment.  The 
rays  reach  almost  to  the  horizon ;  the  whole  sky  is  in 
flames.  Nature  displays  before  us  such  an  exhibition 
of  fireworks  as  transcends  the  powers  of  imagination 
to  conceive.  Involuntarily  we  listen  ;  such  a  spectacle 
must,  we  think,  be  accompanied  with  sound.  But 
unbroken  stillness  prevails,  not  the  least  sound  strikes 
on  the  ear.  Once  more  it  becomes  clear  over  the  ice, 


68  FRANZ   JOSEF  LAND 

and  the  whole  phenomenon  has  disappeared  with  the 
same  inconceivable  rapidity  with  which  it  came,  and 
gloomy  night  has  again  stretched  her  dark  veil  over 
everything.  This  was  the  aurora  of  the  coming  storm 
— the  aurora  in  its  fullest  splendour." 

Sledging  was  begun  in  March,  Hall  Island  being  first 
visited,  and,  on  the  26th,  Payer,  with  six  men,  started 
on  his  main  journey  up  Austria  Sound,  reaching 
Hohenlohe  Island,  where  three  men  were  left,  and  then 
proceeding  further  north  to  Crown  Prince  Rudolf 
Land.  Off  the  southern  promontory  of  this  were 
innumerable  icebergs,  up  to  two  hundred  feet  in  height, 
cracking  and  snapping  in  the  sunshine.  The  Midden- 
dorf  Glacier,  with  an  enormous  sea-wall,  ran  towards 
the  north-west ;  layers  of  snow  and  rents  in  the  sea-ice, 
caused  by  icebergs  falling  in,  filled  the  intervening 
space.  Into  these  fissures  Payer  and  his  men  were 
continually  falling,  drenching  their  canvas  boots  and 
clothes  with  sea- water.  One  of  the  men  was  sent  on 
ahead  to  find  a  path  by  which  the  glacier  might  be 
climbed,  and  discovering  a  fairly  open  road  the  summit 
was  gained  across  many  crevasses  bridged  with  snow, 
three  of  those  at  the  lower  part  needing  but  a  slight 
movement  to  detach  the  severed  portions  and  form 
them  into  bergs. 

While  resting  on  the  glacier  looking  down  on  the 
semicircular  terminal  precipice  and  the  gleaming  host 
of  bergs  which  filled  the  indentations  of  the  coast,  one 
of  the  men  reported  that  his  foot  was  swollen  and 
ulcerated,  and  he  had  to  be  sent  back  to  Hohenlohe 
Island.  Just  as  the  others  were  setting  off,  the  snow 
gave  way  beneath  the  sledge,  and  down  fell  Zaninovich, 


DOWN  THE  CREVASSE  69 

the  dogs  and  the  sledge,  while  Payer  was  dragged  back- 
wards by  the  rope.  The  fall  was  arrested  at  a  depth  of 
thirty  feet  by  the  sledge  sticking  fast  between  the  sides 
of  the  crevasse.  Payer,  on  his  face,  the  rope  attaching 
him  to  the  sledge  tightly  strained  and  cutting  into  the 
snow,  shouted  that  he  would  sever  the  rope,  but 
Zaninovich  implored  him  not  to  do  so  as  the  sledge 
would  then  turn  over  and  he  would  be  killed  ;  hearing, 
however,  from  Orel,  that  the  man  was  lying  on  a  ledge 
of  snow  with  precipices  all  around  him  and  that  the 
dogs  were  still  fast  to  the  traces,  Payer  cut  the  rope, 
and  the  sledge  made  a  short  turn  and  stuck  fast  again. 
Then,  telling  Zaninovich  that  he  must  contrive  to  keep 
himself  from  freezing  for  four  hours,  Payer  and  Orel 
set  off  to  run  the  six  miles  back  to  Hohenlohe  Island. 
Payer,  as  he  went  on  ahead,  threw  off  his  bird-skin 
clothes,  his  boots  and  his  gloves,  and  ran  in  his  stock- 
ings through  the  snow.  In  an  hour  he  reached  the 
camp,  and  leaving  it  unattended  they  all  set  off  to  the 
rescue  with  a  rope  and  a  pole.  Picking  up  his  clothes 
on  the  way,  Payer  and  his  men  reached  the  crevasse ; 
one  of  the  party  was  let  down  by  the  rope,  and  finally 
Zaninovich  and  the  sledge  and  dogs  were  brought 
from  their  dangerous  position  four  hours  and  a  half 
after  their  fall. 

The  advance  was  then  resumed  along  the  west  coast 
of  Crown  Prince  Rudolf  Land  round  the  imposing 
headland  they  named  Cape  Auk — the  rocky  cliffs  being 
covered  with  little  auks  and  other  seabirds,  enormous 
flocks  flying  up  and  filling  the  air,  the  whole  region 
seeming  to  be  alive  with  their  incessant  whirring — and 
following  the  line  of  Teplitz  Bay,  Payer  mounted  one 


70  FRANZ  JOSEF  LAND 

of  the  bergs  detached  from  a  glacier  and  saw  open 
water  with  ice  bounding  it  on  the  horizon.  As  the 
sheet  over  which  their  course  lay  became  thinner,  and 
threatened  to  give  way  beneath  them,  they  had  to  open 
up  a  track  among  the  hummocks  by  pick  and  shovel ; 
and  when  this  failed  they  had  to  unload  the  sledge  and 
carry  the  things  separately.  At  Cape  Saulen  they 
camped  for  the  night  in  the  fissure  of  a  glacier  into 
which  they  had  to  drag  their  baggage  by  a  long  rope ; 
and  next  day — the  12th  of  April,  1874 — they  went  on 
again  and  reached  Cape  Fligely,  in  81°  50'  43",  their 
farthest  north. 

With  great  difficulty  they  made  their  way  back  to 
the  ship,  a  long,  toilsome  journey  through  snow  and 
sludge,  with  open  water  in  places  where  there  had  been 
ice,  which  made  them  fear  the  Tegetthoff  might  have 
drifted  away  again.  The  imminent  danger  of  starva- 
tion was  ended  by  their  reaching  their  depot  on  Schonau 
Island,  whence  Payer  went  on  for  the  remaining  twenty- 
five  miles  alone  with  the  dog-sledge,  the  two  dogs 
giving  much  trouble  until  they  struck  the  old  sledge 
track  almost  obliterated  by  snow,  when  they  raised 
their  heads,  stuck  their  tails  in  the  air,  and  broke  into  a 
run.  Halting  on  an  iceberg  for  a  meal,  the  berg  cap- 
sized, and  in  a  moment  Payer  was  begirt  by  fissures, 
water-pools,  and  rolling  blocks  of  ice,  from  which  he 
managed  to  escape.  When  he  turned  into  the  narrow 
passage  between  Salm  and  Wilczek  Islands,  Orgel 
Cape,  visible  at  a  great  distance,  was  the  only  dark  spot 
on  the  scene.  At  once  the  dogs  made  for  it,  and  about 
midnight  he  arrived  there.  With  an  anxious  heart  he 
began  the  ascent ;  a  barren  stony  plateau  confronted 


PAYER'S   RETURN  71 

him ;  with  every  advancing  step,  made  with  increasing 
difficulty,  the  land  gradually  disappeared  and  the 
horizon  of  the  frozen  sea  expanded  before  him  ;  no  ship 
was  to  be  seen,  no  trace  of  man  for  thousands  of  miles 
except  a  cairn  with  the  fragments  of  a  flag  fluttering  in 
the  wind,  and  a  grave  half  covered  with  snow.  Still 
he  climbed,  and  suddenly  three  masts  emerged.  He 
had  found  the  ship ;  there  she  lay  about  three  miles  off, 
appearing  on  the  frozen  ocean  no  bigger  than  a  fly,  the 
icebergs  and  drifts  around  her  having  hidden  her 
amongst  them.  He  held  the  heads  of  the  dogs  to- 
wards her  and  pointed  with  his  arm  to  where  she  lay ; 
and  they  saw  her,  and  away  they  went,  to  find  all  but 
the  watch  asleep. 

After  another  sledge  journey  north-westwards  to 
Mount  Brunn,  from  which  Richtofen  Peak  was  sighted, 
preparations  were  made  for  abandoning  the  ship  and 
returning  home.  The  three  boats  left  the  Tegettkoff 
on  the  20th  of  May,  but  so  slow  was  the  progress  over 
the  difficult  route  that  at  the  end  of  every  day  in  the 
first  week  it  was  possible  for  Payer  to  go  back  to  her 
on  the  dog-sledge  to  replenish  the  stores  which  had 
been  consumed ;  and  at  the  end  of  two  months  of  in- 
describable effort  the  distance  between  the  boats  and 
the  ship  was  not  more  than  eight  statute  miles.  The 
heights  of  Wilczek  Land  were  still  distinctly  visible 
and  its  lines  of  rocks  shone  with  mocking  brilliance  in 
the  ever-growing  daylight.  All  things  appeared  to 
promise  that  after  a  long  struggle  with  the  ice  there 
remained  for  the  expedition  but  a  despairing  return  to 
the  ship  and  a  third  winter  there  with  the  frozen  ocean 
for  their  grave. 


72  FRANZ  JOSEF  LAND 

In  the  middle  of  July  the  fissures  which  had  been 
opening  out  around  them  became  wider  and  longer, 
progress  reaching  some  four  miles  a  day ;  then  the 
north  wind  blew  and  the  icefield  commenced  to  drift 
to  the  south,  to  drift  again  north-east  when  the  wind 
changed.  Backwards  and  forwards,  amid  every  variety 
of  weather,  including  heavy  rain,  the  pack  ice  moved 
until  it  changed  to  drift  ice,  and,  on  the  15th  of  August, 
the  much -tried  company  got  afloat  at  last  in  open 
water  and  laid  their  course  for  Novaya  Zemlya,  where 
they  fell  in  with  two  Russian  schooners  off  Cape 
Britwin. 

The  next  to  visit  Franz  Josef  Land  was  Leigh  Smith, 
whom  we  met  with  in  the  Spitsbergen  seas.  Building 
the  Eira  especially  for  Arctic  service,  he  started  in 
1880,  the  year  she  was  launched,  on  a  cruise  to  Green- 
land and  thence  eastwards,  which  took  him  to  the  west 
and  north-west  of  the  ground  gone  over  by  the  Aus- 
trians.  He  surveyed  the  whole  coast  from  42°  east  to 
the  most  westerly  point  seen  by  Payer,  and  sorted  it 
out  into  several  islands,  but  found  no  trace  of  the 
Tegetthoff,  for  where  she  had  been  left  was  open  water. 
Encouraged  by  the  success  of  his  visit,  in  which  the 
observations  and  collections  were  unusually  good,  he 
returned  in  the  Eira  the  following  year  to  meet  with 
much  more  unfavourable  ice  conditions.  Finding  it 
impossible  to  get  westward  of  Barents  Hook  the  Eira 
was,  on  the  15th  of  August,  made  fast  to  the  land  floe 
off  Cape  Flora,  and  six  days  afterwards  she  was  nipped 
and  stove  by  the  ice  and  slowly  sank  in  eleven  fathoms 
of  water.  As  she  settled  down  the  steam  winch  was 
set  to  work,  and  by  its  means  half  a  dozen  casks  of 


LEIGH   SMITH   AT  CAPE  FLORA  73 

flour  and  about  three  hundredweight  of  bread  were 
saved  from  the  main  hold ;  and  when  nothing  more 
could  be  got  from  the  lower  deck  the  stores  in  the 
after  cabin  were  attacked,  and  within  the  two  hours 
from  the  discovery  of  the  leak  to  the  disappearance  of 
the  ship,  all  these  provisions  and  the  boats  and  clothes 
were  safe  on  the  ice ;  and  the  sails  were  cut  away,  and 
with  them  and  some  oars  a  tent  was  erected  in  which 
all  the  company,  twenty-five  in  number,  took  shelter. 

A  move  was  made  next  day  to  the  land.  On  Cape 
Flora  a  house  was  built  mainly  of  earth  and  stones, 
covered  with  sails,  in  which  the  winter  was  passed. 
Fortunately  the  district  abounds  with  bears  and  wal- 
ruses, and  the  meat  from  these,  boiled  with  vegetables, 
and  served  out  three  times  a  day  into  twenty-five 
plates  made  out  of  old  provision  tins,  proved  the  right 
sort  of  fare  to  keep  every  one  in  excellent  health. 
Thanks  in  a  great  measure  to  Bob,  the  retriever,  the 
larder  was  kept  full ;  but  there  being  a  shortness  of 
coal,  recourse  for  fuel  had  to  be  made  to  rope  and 
blubber,  so  that  no  one  could  mistake  the  time  when  the 
cooking  was  on.  In  fact,  the  odour  and  the  smoke  were 
of  great  interest  to  the  bears,  who  lingered  about  in- 
tending to  pay  surprise  visits,  and  the  dog  had  always 
to  be  sent  in  front  of  those  leaving  the  house.  One 
day  when  out  on  his  own  account,  Bob  discovered  a 
school  of  walruses  on  the  ice  and  reported  the  matter 
in  his  own  fashion,  whereupon  several  of  these  were 
shot,  and  after  an  exciting  chase  five  were  secured.  In 
January  he  found  another  school,  of  which  three  were 
bagged  and  stowed  alongside  the  house,  although  the 
thermometer  stood  at  forty  below  zero.  On  another 


74-  FRANZ  JOSEF  LAND 

occasion  he  managed  to  tempt  a  bear  up  to  the  front 
door,  where  it  was  promptly  tumbled  over,  to  his 
evident  satisfaction. 

During  the  winter  the  party  killed  twenty-nine  wal- 
ruses and  three  dozen  bears.  Once,  when  only  a  fort- 
night's meat  was  left,  and  things  began  to  look  serious, 
no  less  than  eight  bears  were  killed  in  two  weeks.  At 
the  end  of  April  the  birds  returned,  and  in  June  the  ice 
was  cleared  away  by  a  gale  and  walruses  were  seen 
swimming  on  the  water  in  hundreds.  Never  did  a 
wintering  party  meet  with  better  fortune,  and  never 
was  one  better  managed. 

On  the  21st  of  June  they  started  from  Cape  Flora 
in  four  boats,  six  men  each  in  three  of  them,  seven  in 
the  other,  to  reach  the  open  sea,  leaving  in  the  house 
six  bottles  of  champagne  in  case  any  person  might 
look  in,  besides  a  few  other  things,  and  blocking  up 
the  door  to  keep  out  the  bears.  Before  the  boats 
reached  the  ice  they  crossed  eighty  miles  of  water,  and 
then  six  weeks'  hard  labour  began,  zigzagging  through 
channels,  hauling  over  hurnmocky  floes,  sailing  through 
pools,  halting  for  days  on  a  floe  with  no  water  in  sight, 
but  never  doubting  that  a  clearance  would  come.  On 
leaving  the  ice  they  steered  for  Novaya  Zemlya,  at  first 
in  a  gentle  breeze,  which  rapidly  increased  to  a  gale  in 
a  heavy  thunderstorm,  so  that  the  boats,  with  their 
sails  of  tablecloth  and  shirt-tail,  had  to  be  carefully 
handled  as  they  scudded  before  it  at  such  a  pace  that 
within  twenty-four  hours  of  leaving  the  ice  they  were 
drawn  up  all  safe  on  the  beach  at  the  entrance  of 
Matyushin  Shar.  Next  morning  the  Dutch  exploring 
schooner,  Willem  Barents,  was  descried  coming  out  of 


JACKSON'S  SURVEY  75 

the  strait,  and  before  the  schooner  was  reached  by  the 
boats  there  came  round  the  point  the  Hope,  which 
Sir  Allen  Young,  of  the  Pandora,  had  brought  out  as 
a  rescue  ship  for  them.  They  had  been  driven  by  the 
gale  to  the  very  spot  on  the  very  day  they  could  be 
best  relieved. 

From  the  reports  of  Weyprecht  and  Payer  it 
appeared  that  the  north-east  of  Franz  Josef  Land 
would  make  an  excellent  base  for  a  start  for  the  North 
Pole,  and  Leigh  Smith  was  led  to  the  same  view  by 
his  visit  to  Alexandra  Land,  but  along  the  south  he 
had  made  so  many  changes  in  Payer's  map  that  a 
further  examination  of  the  region  was  evidently  desir- 
able. To  effect  this  by  a  careful  survey  of  the  coasts, 
Frederick  G.  Jackson  landed  near  Cape  Flora  on  the 
7th  of  September,  1894,  and  began  his  residence  of  a 
thousand  days.  Setting  to  work  in  a  businesslike  way, 
and  recording  his  progress  in  similar  style,  he  disin- 
tegrated the  land  masses  into  a  group  of  some  fifty  size- 
able islands,  through  which  run  two  main  waterways, 
his  British  Channel  and  Payer's  Austria  Sound,  both 
opening  out  northwards  into  Queen  Victoria  Sea; 
Crown  Prince  Rudolf  Land  being  a  large  island  at 
the  northern  entrance  of  Austria  Sound,  Wilczek  Land 
at  its  southern  entrance  being  about  twice  its  size. 
He  defined  the  coast -lines  for  over  eighty  miles  of 
latitude,  extending  to  fifteen  degrees  of  longitude  as 
far  west  as  the  most  westerly  headland,  Cape  Mary 
Harmsworth,  and  so  cutting  up  Franz  Josef  Land  that 
not  even  an  island  now  bears  the  name,  which  is  used 
only  as  that  of  the  archipelago.  Never  in  Arctic 
exploration  was  work  rendered  more  evident  than  in 


76  FRANZ  JOSEF  LAND 

the  difference  between  the  map  as  Jackson  found  it 

and  as  he  left  it. 

The  Windward,  with  the  expedition  on  board, 
sighted  the  land  on  the  25th  of  August,  but,  stopped 
by  intervening  ice,  could  not  reach  the  coast  until  a 
fortnight  afterwards,  the  landing  taking  place  at  Cape 
Flora,  close  to  Leigh  Smith's  house,  which  was  found 
with  the  roof  off.  Not  far  away  Jackson  established 
his  headquarters,  quite  a  little  settlement,  though  the 
expedition  consisted  of  only  eight  men.  Just  as  Leigh 
Smith  found  no  remains  of  the  Tegetthqff,  so  Jackson 
found  no  trace  of  the  Eira.  It  had  been  intended 
that  the  Windward  should  return  after  putting  the 
party  ashore,  but,  shut  in  by  the  ice,  she  had  to  re- 
main during  the  first  winter,  getting  away  safely  next 
year,  to  return  in  1896  and  take  away  Nansen,  who,  as 
we  shall  see  further  on,  ended  his  long  land  journey 
here.  On  her  1897  trip  she  departed  with  the  members 
of  the  expedition  all  well,  so  that  neither  ship  nor  man 
was  lost,  the  only  serious  casualties  being  among  the 
dogs  and  the  Russian  ponies  which  did  such  excellent 
service. 

Two  years  afterwards,  in  July,  1899,  the  deserted 
settlement  was  visited  by  the  Duke  of  the  Abruzzi, 
in  his  expedition  in  the  Stella  Polare,  on  his  way  to 
the  north,  a  few  days  before  he  met  with  his  short 
imprisonment  in  the  ice  in  British  Channel.  His  was 
a  successful  run  all  the  same,  for  he  was  in  82°  4',  to 
the  northward  of  Crown  Prince  Rudolf  Land,  or,  as 
it  is  now  called,  Prince  Rudolf  Island,  twenty-seven 
days  out  from  Archangel.  Passing  Cape  Fligely — the 
latitude  of  which  was  afterwards  found  to  be  sixteen 


CAGNI   STARTS   NORTHWARD  77 

miles  south  of  the  82°  5'  Payer  had  made  it — and 
rounding  Cape  Auk,  the  Stella  Polare  went  into 
winter  quarters  in  Teplitz  Bay,  whence  Captain 
Umberto  Cagni  started,  on  the  llth  of  March,  1900, 
for  his  forty-five  days'  march  towards  the  North  Pole. 

It  was  a  great  disappointment  to  the  Duke  to  have 
to  stay  with  the  ship  instead  of  leading  this  well- 
equipped  and  thoroughly  organised  sledge  attempt, 
but  owing  to  an  accident  two  of  his  fingers  had  been 
so  severely  frost-bitten  that  they  had  to  be  amputated, 
and,  unless  a  second  winter  was  to  be  spent  in  the  ice, 
a  start  was  imperative  before  he  could  recover  from 
the  operation.  Thus  all  he  could  do  was  to  assist  at 
the  first  encounter  of  the  sledges  with  the  pressure 
ridges  and  wish  Cagni  the  longest  possible  journey  and 
a  safe  return.  There  was  every  appearance  of  the 
journey  being  a  difficult  one,  for  on  the  first  day  a 
stoppage  had  to  be  made  every  quarter  of  a  mile  or 
thereabouts  for  a  road  to  be  cut  through  the  ridges 
with  ice-axes,  while  next  day  a  new  hindrance  was 
experienced  in  the  young  ice  in  the  channels  being  too 
thin  at  times  to  support  the  sledges,  one  of  which  began 
to  sink  and  was  only  extricated  with  difficulty,  so  that 
only  one  sledge  could  be  allowed  on  such  ice  at  a  time. 

On  the  13th  of  March  the  auxiliary  sledge  was  sent 
back,  thus  reducing  the  caravan  to  a  dozen  sledges  and 
ninety-eight  dogs,  which  in  a  long  line  passed  over 
a  vast  plain  covered  with  great  rugged  blocks  of  ice, 
as  though  they  had  been  thrown  down  confusedly  by 
a  giant's  hand  to  bar  the  way.  The  wind  was  north- 
east, the  cold  intense,  fifty  below  zero,  not  to  be 
particular  to  a  degree  or  so,  for,  as  Cagni  says,  when 


78  FRANZ  JOSEF  LAND 

the  temperature  is  below  twenty-two,  and  it  is  im- 
possible to  use  a  screen  or  a  magnifying  glass,  the 
mere  fact  of  approaching  to  read  the  scale  on  an  un- 
mounted thermometer  sends  it  up  a  couple  of  degrees, 
and  when  the  temperature  is  below  fifty-eight  an 
approach  makes  a  difference  of  three  or  four  degrees. 
So  cold  was  it  that  the  sleeping  bags  were  as  hard  as 
wood,  and  the  men  got  into  them  after  much  effort, 
not  to  sleep  but  to  feel  their  teeth  chattering  for  hours, 
the  only  warm  parts  of  the  body  being  the  feet  clad  in 
long  woollen  stockings.  "  There  are  patches  of  ice  on 
our  knees,"  says  Cagni,  "  like  horses'  knee-caps,  and  we 
have  others,  both  large  and  small,  sometimes  thick 
enough  to  be  scraped  off  with  a  knife,  everywhere,  but 
especially  on  our  cheeks  and  backs  and  in  all  places 
where  the  perspiration  has  oozed  through." 

Amid  such  surroundings  the  camp  must  have  seemed 
somewhat  out  of  place.  When  a  suitable  site  was 
chosen  the  first  sledge  was  stopped,  and  near  it  the 
three  other  sledges  of  the  third  detachment  were 
drawn  up  at  a  distance  of  about  ten  feet  from  each 
other.  The  sledges  of  the  second  detachment  as  they 
came  up  formed  a  second  line,  those  of  the  third  form- 
ing another.  The  tents  were  pitched  between  two 
sledges,  generally  those  in  the  centre,  the  guy  ropes 
being  fastened  to  the  sledge  runners,  those  at  the  ends 
to  an  ice-axe  stuck  in  the  ice.  The  sleeping  bags  were 
then  unpacked,  the  cooking  stoves  taken  out  of  the 
boats,  and  everything  arranged  under  the  tent.  The 
thin  steel  wire  ropes  to  which  the  dogs  were  tethered, 
when  unharnessed,  were  stretched  between  the  sledges 
away  from  the  tents.  While  the  men  were  taking 


THE  DIFFICULT  ROAD  79 

the  dogs  out  of  the  harness,  which  always  remained 
attached  to  the  traces  on  the  sledges,  and  tethering 
them  to  the  steel  ropes,  one  of  the  guides  took  a 
chosen  victim  to  some  distance  from  the  camp,  and 
felled  it  with  a  blow  from  an  ice-axe,  then  opened  it, 
skinned  it  quickly,  divided  it  up  into  ten  shares  and 
distributed  these  to  the  dogs,  already  destined  to 
undergo  the  same  fate,  these  being  the  weakest  and 
most  ailing — in  short,  this  was  the  elimination  of  the 
unfit. 

On  the  22nd  of  March  the  first  detachment  began 
its  return  journey ;  it  consisted  of  Lieutenant  Querini 
and  two  men,  and  it  was  never  heard  of  again.     The 
way  northwards   continued   extremely   difficult,   with 
channels  and  ridges  plentiful  and  the  road  so  rough 
that  the  sledges  began  to  break  up  in  the  bows  and 
runners,  some  at  last  so  badly  that  their  fragments  had 
to  be  used  to  repair  the  others  with.     On  the  31st  the 
second  detachment  was  sent  back,   consisting  of  the 
doctor  and  two  men,  and  it  got  safely  to  the  ship.    The 
third  detachment,  consisting  of  Cagni  with  two  Cour- 
mayeur  guides — Petigax  and  Fenoillet — and  a  sailor, 
Canepa,  all  four  Italians,  made  the  final  effort.     That 
day  they  were  on  level  ice  and  covered  seventeen  miles, 
but  at   night  a   snowstorm  came   on   and   there   was 
trouble.     After  a  rest  they  pressed  forward  in  rapid 
marches  amid  bad  weather  over  the  drifting  fields.    On 
the  12th  of  April  while  raising  camp  a  strong  pressure 
piled  up  within  a  hundred  yards  of  them  a  wall  from 
thirty-six  to  forty-five  feet  high,  the  highest  ridge  they 
had  seen.    Enormous  blocks  rolled  down  towards  them 
with   loud  crashes  after  being    thrown   up   by   other 


80  FRANZ  JOSEF  LAND 

blocks,  lifted  to  the  brow  of  the  ridge  and  rolled  over 
in  their  turn,  raising  a  cloud  of  ice-dust  in  their  fall, 
the  loud  continual  creaking  of  the  pressure  drowned  by 
the  booming  of  the  cascade  which  shook  the  ice  for 
yards  around.  These  ridges  were  constantly  forming, 
most  of  them  remaining,  some  of  them  subsiding  as  the 
edges  drifted  apart,  and  the  channels  thus  caused  were 
even  more  difficult  to  deal  with,  some  having  to  be 
passed  over  thin  ice,  some  ferried  over  on  small  floes. 
But  they  did  not  cross  the  track  all  along,  and  during 
the  last  few  days  the  travelling  was  easy. 

On  the  24th  of  April  the  long  journey  reached  its 
end.  "  At  ten  minutes  past  twelve,"  says  Cagni,  "  we 
are  on  our  way  to  the  north.  The  ice  is  like  that  of 
yesterday,  level  and  smooth,  and,  later  on,  undulating. 
At  first  the  dogs  are  not  very  willing  to  pull,  but  en- 
couraged by  our  shouts  and  a  few  strokes,  they  advance 
at  a  rapid  pace,  which  they  keep  up  during  the  whole 
march.  At  five  we  meet  with  a  large  pressure  ridge, 
which  almost  surprises  us,  as  it  seems  to  us  a  century 
since  we  have  seen  any  ;  we  lost  a  quarter  of  an  hour  in 
preparing  a  passage  through  and  crossing  it.  Beyond 
it  the  aspect  of  the  ice  changes ;  the  undulations  are 
more  strongly  marked,  and  large  blocks  and  small 
ridges  indicate  recent  pressure,  but  luckily  they  do  not 
stop  us  or  obstruct  our  way.  Soon  after  six  we  come 
upon  a  large  channel  running  from  east  to  west ;  we 
must  stop.  Beyond  the  channel  is  a  vast  expanse  of 
new  ice,  much  broken  up  and  traversed  by  many  other 
channels.  Even  if  I  were  not  prevented  from  doing 
so,  I  would  now  think  twice  before  risking  myself  in 
the  midst  of  them.  If  we  did  push  forward  on  that 


THE   ITALIANS1   FARTHEST  NORTH  81 

ice,  even  for  half  a  day,  we  would  gain  very  few  miles 
and  besides  run  the  risk  of  losing  a  sledge.  The  dogs 
are  very  tired,  and  we  too  feel  the  effects  of  yesterday's 
strain.  I  therefore  consider  that  it  is  more  prudent  to 
stop  here,  and  both  the  guides  are  of  the  same  opinion. 
The  sun  is  unclouded.  I  bring  out  the  sextant  and 
take  altitudes  of  the  sun  to  calculate  the  longitude 
(65°  19'  45"  E.)  while  Fenoillet  and  Canepa  put  the 
sledges  in  order  and  pitch  the  tent  in  a  sort  of  small 
amphitheatre  of  hillocks  which  shelter  us  from  the 
north  wind.  On  that  farthest  to  the  north,  which  is 
almost  touched  by  the  water  of  the  channel,  we  plant 
the  staff  from  which  our  flag  waves.  The  air  is  very 
clear  ;  between  the  north-east  and  the  north-west  there 
stand  out  distinctly,  some  sharply  pointed,  others 
rounded,  dark  or  blue  and  white,  often  with  strange 
shapes,  the  innumerable  pinnacles  of  the  great  blocks  of 
ice  raised  up  by  the  pressure.  Farther  away  again  on 
the  bright  horizon  in  a  chain  from  east  to  west  is  a 
great  azure  wall  which  from  afar  seems  insurmount- 
able." The  latitude  was  86°  34'. 

The  outward  journey  took  forty-five  days  ;  the  home- 
ward took  sixty,  and  proved  a  perilous  adventure 
owing  to  the  drift  of  the  pack  to  the  westward  and  its 
breaking  up  as  the  weather  became  warmer  and  the 
southern  boundary  was  approached.  At  first  there 
was  good  promise.  The  dogs  knew  they  were  going 
back,  and  followed  the  outward  track  so  fast  that  the 
men,  failing  to  keep  up  with  them,  for  the  first  time 
took  a  seat  on  the  sledges  and  were  drawn  along  at 
four  miles  an  hour.  Progress  was  rapid  for  a  few  days 
owing  to  there  being  now  only  four  sledges  and,  in  a 


82  FRANZ  JOSEF  LAND 

considerable  degree,  to  the  intelligence  of  the  leading 
dog,  Messicano.  Ever  since  leaving  Teplitz  Bay  this 
small  white  dog,  with  the  intelligent  eyes  and  bushy 
legs,  had  held  the  first  place  in  the  leading  sledge 
because  he  followed  the  man  at  the  head  of  the  convoy 
better  than  the  others,  and  now  when  the  guide  was 
behind  or  on  the  sledge,  Messicano  took  the  track  at 
a  gallop  with  his  nose  on  the  snow,  losing  the  way  now 
and  then,  but  finding  it  again,  though  to  the  men  it 
was  often  invisible.  The  time  came,  however,  when 
the  old  track  had  to  be  left  for  a  better  course  to  the 
ship,  and  then  difficulties  of  every  sort  had  to  be  over- 
come, the  delays  being  such  that  dog  after  dog  had  to 
be  killed  to  keep  away  starvation,  and  it  was  only  with 
seven  of  them  and  two  sledges  that  Prince  Rudolf 
Island  was  reached  from  the  westward  on  the  23rd  of 
June.  "The  snow  is  wet,  which  is  very  bad  for 
dragging  the  sledges,  as  it  sticks  to  the  runners  and 
tires  our  dogs  exceedingly;  we  have  still  seven,  but 
only  three  that  really  pull  (three  to  each  sledge),  for 
Messicano  is  at  the  last  extremity  and  can  hardly  hold 
up  the  trace."  Toiling  on  thus  through  the  fog  to  Cape 
Brorok  a  noise  was  heard  in  the  distance  like  the 
creaking  caused  by  pressure  among  ice  floes,  and  when 
the  fog  lifted  it  was  found  that  the  sound  was  that  of 
the  seabirds  on  the  cliffs.  Out  on  the  icefield  no  signs 
of  life  had  been  met  with  beyond  the  traces  of  a  bear, 
a  seal  that  vanished,  and  a  walrus  that  popped  up 
through  thin  ice  to  send  Fenoillet  scuttling  off  on  his 
hands  and  knees. 

Meanwhile    the    ship,    which    had    been    seriously 
damaged,  had  been  made  seaworthy.     Liberated  from 


THE   RETURN  VOYAGE  83 

her  berth  by  mines  of  gunpowder  and  guncotton, 
she  sailed  from  Teplitz  Bay  on  the  16th  of  August, 
and,  after  further  unpleasant  experiences  in  the  ice, 
reached  Cape  Flora,  where  a  call  was  made  at  Jack- 
son's house  in  the  vain  hope  of  news  of  Querini ;  and 
thence,  after  more  ice  complications,  Captain  Evensen 
took  her  to  Hammerfest.  Though,  as  in  all  Arctic 
endeavour,  conditions  were  against  them,  the  employ- 
ment of  a  Norwegian  crew  for  the  ship  and  an  Italian 
crew  for  the  sledges  had,  under  excellent  management, 
worked  thoroughly  well. 


CHAPTER  V 
CAPE   CHELYUSKIN 

Chelyuskin  reaches  the  cape — The  Laptefs — Deschnefs  voyage  through 
Bering  Strait — Nordenskiold's  voyages  to  the  Yenesei — The  Siberian 
tundra — The  voyage  of  the  Vega — Nordenskiold  rounds  Cape  Chelyuskin 
— Endeavour  to  reach  the  Siberian  Islands — LiakhoiFs  discovery — The 
Vega  passes  the  Cape  North  of  Captain  Cook — Frozen  in  within  six  miles 
of  Cape  Serdze  Kamen — Completes  the  North-east  Passage— Nansen's 
voyage — The  Pram — Her  drift  in  the  ice — Nansen  and  Johansen  start 
for  the  Pole — They  reach  86°  13'  6" — Their  journey  to  Frederick  Jackson 
Island — The  meeting  with  Jackson — Sverdrup's  voyage  to  Spitsbergen. 

THE  tundras  and  shores  of  Siberia  abound  with 
obstacles  to  exploration,  and  yet  a  third  of  the 
threshold  of  the  Polar  regions  has  been  surveyed  along 
their  line.  No  spot  remains  unvisited  on  the  northern 
margin  of  the  Asiatic  mainland,  the  northernmost 
point  of  which  is  Cape  Chelyuskin  in  77°  36 '8',  so  that 
the  Arctic  Circle  sweeps  inland  for  770  miles  to  the 
south  of  it — in  other  words  the  cape  is  practically  half- 
way between  the  Circle  and  the  Pole. 

It  was  chiefly  from  the  land  that  the  northern  coast- 
line was  surveyed  by  the  Russians,  whose  Arctic  work 
has  been  immense  and  thorough,  though  not  marked  by 
any  striking  discoveries.  Cape  Chelyuskin  was  first 
reached,  in  May,  1742,  by  the  explorer  whose  name  it 
bears,  after  a  sledge  journey  from  the  Chatanga,  he 
being  at  the  time  second  in  command  to  Khariton 
Laptef,  whose  first  expedition  in  1739  ended  in  the  loss 

84 


CAPE     CHELYUSKIN 


I 


0  100  200          300  400  BOO 


To  face  page  84 


THE  EXPLORERS  OF  NORTHERN  SIBERIA  85 
of  his  ship  three  hundred  miles  from  his  winter  quar- 
ters, to  which  he  had  to  travel  on  foot,  losing  twelve 
men  by  cold  and  exhaustion  on  the  way.  Within  the 
preceding  four  years  the  survey  of  the  coast  west  of  it 
had  been  completed  in  four  stages — from  Archangel  to 
Yalmal  (that  is  Land's  End) ;  from  Yalmal  to  the  Obi ; 
from  the  Obi  to  the  Yenesei ;  from  the  Yenesei  to 
Cape  Sterlegof.  In  1735  Pronchistschef,  from  the 
Lena,  failed  to  round  Cape  Chelyuskin  from  the  east, 
and  returned  to  the  Olenek  to  die  but  two  days  before 
his  young  wife,  who  was  his  companion  on  his  perilous 
voyage.  Two  years  afterwards  Dmitri  Laptef  began 
his  explorations  east  of  the  Lena  which  took  him  to 
Cape  Baranoff,  thus  joining  up  to  the  discoveries  of 
the  sable -hunters  made  a  century  before,  including 
those  of  Deschnef,  who,  in  1648,  sailed  from  the 
Kolyma  to  Kamchatka  and  went  through  Bering 
Strait  more  than  thirty  years  before  Bering  was  born. 
Thus  the  route  of  the  North-east  Passage  was  known, 
although  no  man  had  travelled  the  whole  way  either 
by  land  or  sea,  before  the  task  was  undertaken  by 
Nordenskiold. 

To  begin  with,  Nordenskiold  made  two  voyages  to 
the  Yenesei.  In  the  first  voyage  he  left  Tromsoe  in  the 
Proeven  on  the  14th  of  June,  1875,  and  reached  what 
he  named  Dickson  Harbour  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Yenesei  on  the  15th  of  August.  Sending  back  the 
Proeven,  which  returned  through  Matyushin  Shar,  he, 
with  Lundstrom  the  botanist  and  Stuxberg  the  zoolo- 
gist, and  three  walrus-hunters,  embarked  in  a  boat  they 
had  brought  out  with  them  and  proceeded  up  the 
estuary  into  the  river ;  and  during  the  first  six  hundred 


86  CAPE   CHELYUSKIN 

miles  they  landed  only  twice.  On  the  last  day  of  the 
month  they  caught  up  a  steamer  on  which  they  became 
passengers. 

"  We  were  yet,"  says  Nordenskiold,  "  far  to  the 
north  of  the  Arctic  Circle,  and  as  many  perhaps 
imagine  that  the  little-known  region  we  were  now 
travelling  through,  the  Siberian  tundra,  is  a  desert 
wilderness  covered  either  by  ice  and  snow,  or  by  an 
exceedingly  scanty  moss  vegetation,  it  perhaps  may  not 
be  out  of  place  to  say  that  this  is  by  no  means  the 
case.  On  the  contrary,  we  saw  snow  during  our 
journey  up  the  Yenesei  only  at  one  place,  in  a  deep 
valley  cleft  some  fathoms  in  breadth,  and  the  vegeta- 
tion, especially  on  the  islands  which  are  overflowed 
during  the  spring  floods,  is  distinguished  by  a  luxuri- 
ance to  which  I  have  seldom  seen  anything  compar- 
able. Already  had  the  fertility  of  the  soil  and  the 
immeasurable  extent  and  richness  in  grass  of  the  pas- 
tures drawn  forth  from  one  of  our  walrus-hunters,  a 
middle-aged  man  who  is  owner  of  a  little  patch  of 
ground  among  the  fells  of  Northern  Norway,  a  cry  of 
envy  at  the  splendid  land  our  Lord  had  given  the 
Russian,  and  of  astonishment  that  no  creature  pas- 
tured, no  scythe  mowed,  the  grass.  Daily  and  hourly 
we  heard  the  same  cry  repeated,  and  even  in  louder 
tones,  when  some  weeks  after  we  came  to  the  grand 
old  forests  between  Yeneseisk  and  Turuchansk,  or  to 
the  nearly  uninhabited  plains  on  the  other  side  of 
Krasnoyarsk  covered  with  deep  black  earth,  equal  with- 
out doubt  in  fertility  to  the  best  parts  of  Scania,  and  in 
extent  surpassing  the  whole  Scandinavian  peninsula. 
This  judgment  formed  on  the  spot  by  a  genuine  though 


THE   NORTH-EAST  PASSAGE  87 

illiterate  agriculturist  is  not  without  interest  in  forming 
an  idea  of  the  future  importance  of  Siberia." 

In  fact,  Siberia  is  particularly  rich  in  mineral  and 
agricultural  wealth,  and  this  voyage,  which  opened  up 
the  route  to  and  from  Europe  by  the  natural  outlets 
to  the  north,  was  of  such  commercial  promise  that 
the  explorer  received  for  it  the  special  thanks  of  the 
Russian  Government.  As,  however,  there  were  people 
who  looked  upon  it  as  an  exceptional  voyage  in  an  ex- 
ceptional year,  Nordenskiold  next  season  took  another 
voyage  to  the  river,  this  time  in  the  Ymer,  carrying 
the  first  instalment  of  merchandise  so  as  to  begin  the 
trade ;  and  he  was  followed  in  a  few  weeks  by  Captain 
Joseph  Wiggins,  in  the  Thames,  whose  subsequent 
voyages  made  the  northern  route  well  known. 

Assured  by  the  experience  gained  in  these  voyages 
that  the  North-east  Passage  was  possible  to  a  steam 
vessel  of  moderate  size,  Nordenskiold,  in  1878,  was 
enabled  to  fit  out  the  Vega,  and  sailed  from  Tromsoe 
on  the  31st  of  July.  Three  other  vessels  accompanied 
her,  two  bound  for  the  Yenesei,  one  for  the  Lena,  the 
rendezvous  being  Khabarova.  All  went  well.  On  the 
9th  of  August  the  Fraser  and  Express  proceeded  up 
the  Yenesei  to  discharge  their  cargoes  and  return  to 
Europe  in  safety ;  next  day  the  Vega  and  Lena  left 
for  the  eastward,  and,  after  some  risky  navigation 
among  islands  and  through  fog,  lay  for  four  days  in 
Actinia  Haven,  between  Taimyr  Island  and  the  main- 
land, vainly  waiting  for  clear  weather.  Pushing  on 
through  fitful  fog  they  sighted  a  promontory  in  the 
north-east  gleaming  in  the  sunshine,  and  rounding  its 
western  horn  anchored  in  a  bay  open  to  the  north  and 


88  CAPE   CHELYUSKIN 

free  from  ice  at  the  extremity  of  Cape  Chelyuskin. 
With  the  rounding  of  the  most  northerly  point  of  the 
Old  World  the  first  object  of  the  expedition  had  been 
attained.  The  salute  fired  in  honour  of  the  event 
having  frightened  away  the  only  polar  bear  who  had 
stood  watching  the  ship  from  the  western  horn,  some 
of  the  party  landed,  the  botanists  to  discover  that 
all  the  plants  of  the  peninsula  had  apparently  been 
stopped  on  the  outermost  promontory  when  trying  to 
migrate  further  north.  The  flora  was  not  extensive— 
a  few  luxuriant  lichens  and  twenty-three  flowering 
plants,  eight  of  them  saxifrages,  most  of  them  with  a 
tendency  to  form  semi-globular  tufts ;  the  fauna  con- 
sisted of  the  bear,  a  few  seals,  a  walrus,  two  shoals  of 
white  whales,  some  ducks  and  geese,  and  a  number  of 
sandpipers.  Not  so  long  a  list  as  was  obtained  at 
other  landings,  but  by  no  means  a  bad  one  for  the 
half-way  house  to  the  Pole. 

After  passing  the  cape  the  course  was  laid  for  the 
New  Siberian  Islands,  but  ice  prevented  progress 
in  their  direction  beyond  77°  45',  the  highest  north  of 
the  voyage,  and  the  ship  had  to  work  her  way  out  by 
the  route  she  went  in,  thus  losing  a  day,  which  had 
serious  consequences,  though  it  proved  the  correctness 
of  Nordenskiold's  theory  that  the  water  delivered  by 
the  Siberian  rivers  is,  for  a  few  months,  of  sufficiently 
high  temperature  to  give  a  clear  passage  to  vessels 
content  to  keep  near  the  coast.  On  reaching  the 
mouth  of  the  Lena  the  ships  parted  company,  Captain 
Johannsen  taking  the  smaller  steamer  up  the  river  as 
intended  and  bringing  the  news  of  the  rounding  of 
Cape  Chelyuskin  and  the  promise  of  the  North-east 


LIAKHOFFS   DISCOVERY  89 

Passage  being  accomplished  in  one  season,  which  was 
not  destined  to  be  fulfilled. 

Another  attempt  was  then  made  by  the  Vega  to 
reach  the  islands  to  the  north,  but  after  sighting  the 
two  most  westerly  of  the  group  the  shallow  sea  was 
too  crowded  with  rotten  ice,  and  an  idea  of  landing 
on  Liakhoff  Island  having  to  be  given  up  for  the 
same  reason,  the  course  was  altered  so  as  to  take  the 
ship  round  Svjatoi  Nos  (the  Holy  Cape),  where  in 
April,  1770,  Liakhoff  had  noticed  the  mighty  crowd 
of  reindeer  going  south.  Justly  considering  they  must 
have  come  over  the  ice  from  some  northern  land,  he 
went  back  on  their  tracks  in  a  dog-sledge,  disccvering 
two  of  the  most  southerly  islands,  and  obtaining  from 
Catherine  the  Second  as  a  reward  the  monopoly  of  hunt- 
ing the  foxes  and  collecting  the  ivory  there  from  the 
fossil  mammoths  he  found  in  abundance. 

Forced  to  keep  to  the  channel  along  the  coast,  which 
daily  became  narrower,  the  Vega  reached  Cape  Che- 
lagskoi,  and  when  off  this  promontory  Nordenskiold 
saw  the  first  natives  during  his  voyage.  Two  boats 
built  of  skin  almost  exactly  similar  to  the  oomiaks,  or 
women's  boats,  used  by  the  Eskimos,  came  out  to  the 
ship,  the  men,  women,  and  children  in  them  intimating 
by  shouts  and  gestures  that  they  wished  to  come  on 
board.  The  Vega  was  brought-to  that  they  might  do 
so,  but  as  none  of  the  Chukches  could  speak  Russian 
and  none  of  the  Swedes  knew  Chukche,  the  interview 
was  not  so  satisfactory  as  expected,  though  the  uni- 
versal language  of  pantomime  with  presents  ensured  a 
favourable  termination. 

On  the  12th  of  September  the  Vega  passed  Irkaipii, 


90  CAPE   CHELYUSKIN 

the  Cape  North  of  Captain  Cook,  and  by  rounding  it 
Nordenskiold  joined  up  with  the  westernmost  limit  of 
the  Arctic  discoveries  of  the  great  navigator.  Cook 
tried  to  weather  it  in  August,  1778,  but  was  turned 
back  by  fog  and  snow,  and  thinking  it  was  "  not  con- 
sistent with  prudence  to  make  any  further  attempts  to 
find  a  passage  into  the  Atlantic  this  year  in  any  direc- 
tion, so  little  was  the  prospect  of  succeeding,"  he  sailed 
for  Hawaii,  where  his  intention  of  making  the  attempt 
the  ensuing  summer  came  to  nought  owing  to  his 
death. 

On  the  28th  of  September  the  Vegas  progress  for 
the  year  was  arrested  by  her  being  frozen  in  for  the 
winter  on  the  eastern  side  of  Kolyuchin  Bay  in  the 
northernmost  part  of  Bering  Strait,  only  six  miles  of 
ice  barring  the  way  round  Cape  Serdze  Kamen  into  the 
open  sea.  During  her  detention  of  two  hundred  and 
sixty-four  days  the  scientific  investigations  of  many 
kinds  that  were  undertaken  were  of  lasting  importance, 
as  they  had  been  throughout,  and  when  she  was  re- 
leased on  the  18th  of  July,  1879,  to  come  home  by  way 
of  Yokohama,  the  collections  and  records  she  brought 
with  her  were  simply  enormous.  No  better  work  with 
greater  results  was  done  by  any  Arctic  expedition 
than  during  this  successful  voyage,  which  was  too  well 
managed  to  have  much  adventure.  For  it  Nordens- 
kiold  very  justly  claimed  the  reward  of  twenty-five 
thousand  guilders  offered  in  1596  by  the  States-General 
of  Holland,  the  endeavour  to  win  which  sent  out  Van 
Heemskerck,  Barents,  and  Rijp. 

We  have  seen  how  the  Dutchmen  built  their  house 
at  Ice  Haven  mainly  of  the  driftwood  from  the  Siberian 


ADOLF  ERIK   NORDENSKIOLD 


To  face  page  90 


NANSEN'S  VOYAGE  91 

rivers.  Similar  wood  from  probably  the  same  source  is 
found  on  the  shores  of  Greenland  and  of  almost  all  the 
northerly  islands  of  the  Arctic  Ocean.  Further,  the 
Greenland  flora  includes  a  series  of  Siberian  plants 
apparently  from  seeds  drifted  there  by  some  current. 
Not  only  do  trees  and  seeds  travel  by  water  from  Asia 
westward  to  America ;  at  Godthaab,  for  instance,  on 
the  western  coast  of  Greenland,  there  was  found  a 
throwing-stick  of  a  shape  and  ornamentation  used  only 
by  the  Alaskan  Eskimos ;  and  three  years  after  the 
foundering  of  the  Jeannette  to  the  north  of  the  New 
Siberian  Islands  there  were  found  on  the  south-west 
coast  of  Greenland  a  number  of  articles  in  the  drift-ice 
that  must  have  come  from  the  sunken  vessel.  For 
these  and  other  reasons  it  seemed  clear  to  Fridtjof 
Nansen  that  a  current  flowed  at  some  point  between 
the  Pole  and  Franz  Josef  Land  from  the  Siberian 
Arctic  Sea  to  the  Greenland  coast,  and  so  he  set  to 
work  to  organise  his  daring  expedition  to  strike  this 
current  well  to  the  eastward,  trusting  to  its  mercies  to 
take  him  to  or  near  the  Pole. 

In  1893,  when  the  Fram  rounded  Cape  Chelyuskin, 
Nansen  had  found  the  Kara  Sea  almost  as  open  as 
Nordenskiold  had  done,  but  had  met  with  more  diffi- 
culties among  the  islands  off  the  Taimyr  Peninsula. 
A  famous  vessel,  the  Fram,  the  first  of  her  kind,  built 
specially  for  the  ice  to  take  her  where  it  listed  in  the 
hope  that  she  would  drift  to  discovery  like  the  Tegctt- 
koff,  and  not  to  disaster  like  the  Jeannette.  The 
general  idea  was  Nansen's,  the  carrying  out  of  the 
idea  was  Colin  Archer's.  As  Nansen  says  :  "  We  must 
gratefully  recognise  that  the  success  of  the  expedition 


92  CAPE   CHELYUSKIN 

was  in  no  small  degree  due  to  this  man."  Plan  after 
plan  did  he  make  of  the  projected  ship,  model  after 
model  did  he  prepare  and  abandon  before  he  was 
satisfied :  and  never  was  a  ship  more  honestly  built. 
With  her  double-ended  deck  plan,  with  a  side  of  such 
curve  and  slope  that  under  ice  pressure  she  would  be 
lifted  instead  of  crushed  between  the  floes,  and  with 
bow,  stern,  and  keel  so  rounded  off  that  she  would  slip 
like  an  eel  from  the  embrace  of  the  ice,  she  was  of 
such  solidity  as  to  withstand  any  pressure  from  any 
direction.  Her  stem  of  three  stout  oak  beams,  one 
inside  the  other,  was  four  feet  in  thickness,  protected 
with  iron  ;  her  rudder-post  and  propeller-post,  two  feet 
across,  had  on  either  side  a  stout  oak  counter-timber 
following  the  curvature  upwards  and  forming  a  double 
stern-post,  with  the  planking  cased  with  heavy  iron 
plates  ;  and  between  these  timbers  was  a  well  for  the 
screw  and  another  for  the  rudder,  so  that  each  could 
be  hoisted  on  deck,  the  rudder  with  the  help  of  the 
capstan  coming  up  in  a  few  minutes.  Her  frames, 
ten  inches  thick  and  twenty-one  wide,  stood  close 
together,  carrying  three  layers  of  planking,  giving 
altogether  a  side  of  two  feet  or  more  of  solid  wood, 
so  shored  and  stayed  for  strength  that  the  hold  looked 
like  a  thicket  of  balks,  joists,  and  stanchions.  With 
a  length  of  128  feet  over  all,  a  breadth  of  thirty-six,  a 
depth  of  seventeen,  and  a  displacement  of  800  tons, 
she  was  quite  a  multum-in-parvo  engined  with  a 
220  horse-power  triple  expansion,  so  contrived  that  in 
case  of  accident  or  for  any  other  cause  the  cylinders 
could  be  used  singly  or  two  together.  Rigged  as  a  three- 
masted  fore-and-aft  schooner,  with  the  mainmast  much 


A   WALRUS   HUNT  93 

higher  than  the  others— it  being  unusually  high,  for 
the  crow's-nest  on  the  main-topmast  was  102  feet 
above  the  water — she  proved  equal  to  the  demands  on 
her,  though  in  her  case  strength  and  warmth  had  to  be 
thought  of  before  weatherliness  and  speed.  But  her 
speed  was  not  so  poor,  for  when  steaming  and  sailing 
after  leaving  Cape  Chelyuskin  on  the  10th  of  Sep- 
tember she  was  doing  her  nine  knots. 

The  day  after  she  had  entered  the  Nordenskiold 
Sea  came  a  walrus-hunt,  so  graphically  described  by 
Nansen  that  we  must  find  room  for  an  extract.  "  It 
was,"  he  says,  "  a  lovely  morning — fine,  still  weather ; 
the  walruses'  guffaw  sounded  over  to  us  along  the 
clear  ice  surface.  They  were  lying  crowded  together 
on  a  floe  a  little  to  landward  of  us,  blue  mountains 
glittering  behind  them  in  the  sun.  At  last  the  har- 
poons were  sharpened,  guns  and  cartridges  ready,  and 
Henriksen,  Juell,  and  I  set  off.  There  seemed  to  be 
a  slight  breeze  from  the  south,  so  we  rowed  to  the 
north  side  of  the  floe,  to  get  to  leeward  of  the  animals. 
From  time  to  time  their  sentry  raised  his  head,  but 
apparently  did  not  see  us.  We  advanced  slowly,  and 
soon  were  so  near  that  we  had  to  row  very  cautiously. 
Juell  kept  us  going,  while  Henriksen  was  ready  in  the 
bow  with  a  harpoon,  and  I  behind  him  with  a  gun. 
The  moment  the  sentry  raised  his  head  the  oars 
stopped,  and  we  stood  motionless ;  when  he  sank  it 
again,  a  few  more  strokes  brought  us  nearer.  Body 
to  body  they  lay,  close-packed  on  a  small  floe,  old  and 
young  ones  mixed.  Enormous  masses  of  flesh  they 
were.  Now  and  again  one  of  the  ladies  fanned  herself 
by  moving  one  of  her  flippers  backwards  and  forwards 


94  CAPE   CHELYUSKIN 

over  her  body ;  then  she  lay  quiet  again  on  her  back 
or  side.  More  and  more  cautiously  we  drew  near. 
Whilst  I  sat  ready  with  the  gun,  Henriksen  took  a 
good  grip  of  the  harpoon  shaft,  and  as  the  boat 
touched  the  floe  he  rose,  and  off  flew  the  harpoon. 
But  it  struck  too  high,  glanced  off  the  tough  hide, 
and  skipped  over  the  backs  of  the  animals.  Now 
there  was  a  pretty  to  do !  Ten  or  twelve  great  weird 
faces  glared  upon  us  at  once ;  the  colossal  creatures 
twisted  themselves  round  with  incredible  celerity,  and 
came  waddling  with  lifted  heads  and  hollow  bellowings 
to  the  edge  of  the  ice  where  we  lay.  It  was  un- 
deniably an  imposing  sight ;  but  I  laid  my  gun  to  my 
shoulder  and  fired  at  one  of  the  biggest  heads.  The 
animal  staggered  and  then  fell  head  foremost  into  the 
water.  Now  a  ball  into  another  head ;  this  creature 
fell,  too,  but  was  able  to  fling  itself  into  the  sea.  And 
now  the  whole  flock  dashed  in,  and  we,  as  well  as  they, 
were  hidden  in  the  spray.  It  had  all  happened  in  a 
few  seconds.  But  up  they  came  again  immediately 
round  the  boat,  the  one  head  bigger  and  uglier  than 
the  other — their  young  ones  close  beside  them.  They 
stood  up  in  the  water,  bellowed  and  roared  till  the  air 
trembled,  threw  themselves  forward  towards  us,  then 
rose  up  again,  and  new  bellowings  filled  the  air. 
Then  they  rolled  over  and  disappeared  with  a  splash, 
then  bobbed  up  again.  The  water  foamed  and  boiled 
for  yards  around — the  ice-world  that  had  been  so  still 
before  seemed  in  a  moment  to  have  been  transformed 
into  a  raging  Bedlam.  Any  moment  we  might  expect 
to  have  a  walrus  tusk  or  two  through  the  boat  or  to 
be  heaved  up  or  capsized.  Something  of  this  kind 


FROZEN  IN  95 

was  the  very  least  that  could  happen  after  such  a 
terrible  commotion.  But  the  hurly-burly  went  on 
and  nothing  came  of  it." 

The  From  had  to  follow  the  coast  owing  to  the  thick 
pack  barring  the  way  across  the  sea.  The  mouth  of 
the  Chatanga  was  passed,  then  that  of  the  Olenek,  and 
then  the  influence  of  the  warm  water  of  the  Lena 
being  apparent  by  the  clearance  of  the  floes,  the  course 
was  laid  straight  for  the  Pole  in  open  water  until 
77°  44'  was  reached,  when,  checked  by  the  long  com- 
pact edge  of  ice  shining  through  the  fog,  the  route 
became  north-westerly  until  they  stopped  for  fear  they 
should  get  near  land,  which  was  the  very  thing  they 
wished  to  avoid ;  and  on  the  25th  of  September  in 
about  78j°  north  latitude — north-west  of  Sannikof 
Land — they  were  frozen  in. 

Preparations  for  wintering  began.  The  rudder  was 
hauled  up,  the  engine  was  taken  to  pieces,  each  separate 
part  oiled  and  laid  away  with  the  greatest  care — for 
Amundsen  looked  after  it  as  if  it  were  his  own  child — 
a  carpenter's  shop  was  started  in  the  hold,  a  smithy 
arranged  first  on  deck  and  then  on  the  ice.  But  it  all 
had  to  be  replaced,  even  the  engine  put  together  again, 
for  the  pack  cleared  away  for  a  brief  period,  to  return, 
when  again  the  shiftings  were  made ;  and  when  the 
windmill  was  put  up  to  drive  the  dynamo,  the  winter 
installation  was  in  all  senses  complete. 

Slowly  the  Fram  drifted  in  her  ice-berth,  so  slowly 
that  at  the  end  of  twelve  months  she  had  moved  from 
point  to  point  only  189  miles,  having  returned  no  fur- 
ther west  than  the  longitude  of  the  Olenek;  her 
highest  north,  attained  on  the  18th  of  June,  being 


96  CAPE  CHELYUSKIN 

81°  46'.  In  the  main  the  drift  was  north-westerly,  but 
three  times  it  had  boxed  the  compass  in  irregular  loops, 
the  only  constant  thing  about  it  being  that,  in  no 
matter  what  direction  she  was  taken,  the  bow  of  the 
Fram  always  pointed  south.  Of  grips  she  had  many, 
some  of  the  pressures  were  enormous,  once  they  were 
severe  enough  to  suggest  measures  for  her  abandon- 
ment, but  she  survived  them  all  unscathed.  Early  in 
the  drift  it  became  apparent  that  the  ice  was  packing 
twice  and  slacking  twice  in  every  twenty-four  hours, 
and  in  this  sea,  as  afterwards  in  the  Atlantic  area,  the 
influence  of  the  tides,  particularly  the  spring  tides,  was 
unmistakable — as  it  was  expected  it  would  be — though 
in  the  deep  Polar  basin  the  wind  had  more  effect ;  and, 
in  truth,  the  wind  was  a  factor  throughout  in  the  packing 
of  the  ice  and  in  the  drift's  direction.  One  thing  was 
clear,  that  the  current  was  not  taking  the  Fram  across 
the  North  Pole,  but  about  half-way  between  it  and 
Spitsbergen  ;  and  if  the  Pole  was  to  be  reached  some 
of  the  expedition  must  attempt  to  get  there  over  the 
ice.  This  meant  leaving  the  ship,  going  north,  arid 
returning  to  the  nearest  known  land,  for,  owing  to  the 
irregularity  of  the  drift,  it  was  hopeless  to  think  of 
again  reaching  the  Fram.  During  the  second  winter 
the  route  of  the  ship  trended  more  to  the  north,  and, 
after  a  loop  all  round  in  January,  she  reached  84°  4'  on 
the  14th  of  March  in  the  longitude  of  Cape  Chelyuskin. 
Here  Nansen  and  Lieutenant  F.  H.  Johansen,  who 
rather  than  not  join  the  Fram  had  shipped  in  her  as 
stoker,  left  the  ship  with  three  sledges,  two  kayaks,  and 
twenty-eight  dogs  to  go  as  far  northward  as  they  could, 
their  expectation  being  that  they  would  reach  the  Pole 


(tfJHA+9     ^SA^ 

v          , — •/ 


To  face  pase  96 


JOURNEYING  TOWARDS  THE  POLE  97 

in  fifty  days.  Had  they  remained  in  the  ship  until 
November  they  would  have  saved  themselves  trouble, 
for,  as  matters  turned  out,  the  embarrassing  drift  took 
the  Fram  within  eight  miles  of  the  farthest  north 
they  attained  after  twenty-three  days  of  strenuous  en- 
deavour. 

The  ice,  fairly  easy  for  a  few  days,  soon  became 
terrible  in  the  difficulties  it  offered  to  progress  over  it, 
and  the  continual  toil  of  hauling  and  carrying  the 
sledges,  and  righting  them  when  capsized,  soon  told  on 
the  two  men  to  such  an  extent  as  to  tire  them  out  so 
thoroughly  that  sometimes  in  the  evening  they  fell 
asleep  as  they  went  along.  The  cold,  too,  proved 
singularly  searching  and  severe.  During  the  course  of 
the  day  the  damp  exhalations  of  the  body  little  by 
little  became  condensed  in  their  outer  garments,  which 
became  transformed  into  suits  of  ice-armour,  so  hard 
that  if  they  could  have  been  got  off  they  could  have 
stood  by  themselves,  and  they  crackled  audibly  at  every 
movement.  The  clothes  were  so  stiff  that  the  sleeve 
of  Nansen's  coat  rubbed  deep  sores  in  his  wrist,  one  of 
which  got  frost-bitten,  the  wound  growing  deeper  and 
deeper  and  nearly  reaching  the  bone.  "  How  cold  we 
were,"  says  Nansen,  "  as  we  lay  there  shivering  in  the 
bag,  waiting  for  the  supper  to  be  ready !  I,  who  was 
cook,  was  obliged  to  keep  myself  more  or  less  awake  to 
see  to  the  culinary  operations,  and  sometimes  I  suc- 
ceeded. At  last  the  supper  was  ready,  was  portioned 
out,  and,  as  always,  tasted  delicious.  These  occasions 
were  the  supreme  moments  of  our  existence,  moments 
to  which  we  looked  forward  all  day  long.  But  some- 
times we  were  so  weary  that  our  eyes  closed,  and  we 


98  CAPE  CHELYUSKIN 

fell  asleep  with  the  food  on  its  way  to  our  mouths. 
Our  hands  would  fall  back  inanimate  with  the  spoons 
in  them  and  the  food  fly  out  on  the  bag." 

The  further  they  went  the  worse  became  the  condi- 
tions. On  the  8th  of  April,  with  ridge  after  ridge  and 
nothing  but  rubble  to  travel  over,  the  work  became  so 
disheartening  that  Nansen  went  on  ahead  on  his  skis 
and  from  the  highest  hummocks  viewed  the  state  of 
affairs ;  and  as  far  as  the  horizon,  lay  a  chaos  of  such 
character  that  progress  across  was  impracticable  if  he 
and  Johansen  were  to  return  alive.  Here,  then,  they 
stopped,  this  being  their  northernmost  limit,  128  miles 
from  the  Fram,  260  miles  from  the  Pole,  latitude 
86°  13-6',  longitude  95°. 

To  reach  this  point  they  had  been  travelling  north- 
westwards for  six  days,  the  way  due  north  being 
impassable  ;  but  on  turning  south  they  seemed  to  enter 
another  country ;  so  much  did  the  going  improve  after 
the  first  mile  that  in  three  days  they  covered  over  forty 
miles.  They  were  making  for  Petermann  Land,  which 
does  not  exist,  or  for  the  wide-stretching  Franz  Josef 
Land,  also  placed  on  the  maps  by  Payer,  which  Jack- 
son had  been  cutting  up  into  fragments  while  the  Pram 
was  in  the  ice.  Further  south  difficulties  thickened 
ahead  of  them  till  the  road  became  almost  as  bad  as 
that  to  the  north.  Before  they  reached  land  the  hun- 
dred days  they  had  allowed  themselves  had  increased  to 
more  than  half  as  many  again,  their  dogs  had  been 
killed  one  by  one  to  yield  food  for  the  rest,  until  only 
two  remained ;  Nansen  was  helpless  with  rheumatism 
for  two  days ;  and  Johansen  was  nearly  killed  by  a 
bear.  Through  a  chain  of  disasters  caused  by  storms 


FREDERICK  JACKSON  ISLAND  99 

and  fogs  and  snow  and  the  state  of  the  ice,  they 
threaded  their  way,  sometimes  by  sledge,  sometimes  by 
kayak,  through  mazes  of  open  channels,  leaping  from 
floe  to  floe  and  ferrying  back  to  get  their  baggage  over, 
hundreds  of  yards  on  mere  brash,  dragging  the  sledges 
after  them  in  constant  fear  of  their  capsizing  into  the 
water.  Then  the  ice  gave  out  and,  taking  to  their 
kayaks,  they  sailed  and  paddled  to  what  is  now  known 
as  Frederick  Jackson  Island  in  the  north  of  the  Franz 
Josef  Archipelago. 

Here  they  wintered,  quite  at  a  loss  at  first  to  know 
where  they  were,  owing  to  their  watches  having  run 
down  during  a  great  effort  of  thirty-six  hours  at  a 
stretch,  so  that  they  did  not  know  their  longitude, 
though  they  subsequently  concluded  they  must  be 
somewhere  on  Franz  Josef  Land  within  140  miles  of 
Eira  Harbour.  They  built  a  hut  and  altogether  lived 
passably  well,  there  being  no  lack  of  food,  thanks 
mainly  to  the  bears,  whose  visits  were  embarrassing  in 
their  frequency  though  the  visitors  were  not  unwelcome 
when  they  came  to  stay. 

On  the  19th  of  May  they  set  out  for  the  south,  down 
British  Channel,  with  their  sledges  and  kayaks,  and 
five  days  afterwards,  when  off  Cape  M'Clintock,  while 
Johansen  was  busy  lashing  the  sail  and  mast  securely  to 
the  deck  of  his  kayak  to  prevent  their  being  blown 
away,  Nansen  went  on  ahead  to  look  for  a  camping 
ground  and  fell  through  a  crack  in  the  ice  which  had 
been  hidden  by  the  snow.  He  tried  to  get  out,  but 
with  his  skis  firmly  fastened  could  not  pull  them  up 
through  the  rubble  of  ice  which  had  fallen  into  the 
water  on  the  top  of  them,  and,  being  harnessed  to  the 


100  CAPE   CHELYUSKIN 

sledge,  he  could  not  turn  round.  Fortunately,  as  he 
fell,  he  had  dug  his  staff  into  the  ice  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  crack,  and  holding  himself  up  with  its  aid, 
and  the  arm  he  had  got  over  the  edge  of  the  ice,  he 
waited  patiently  for  Johansen  to  come  and  pull  him 
out.  When  he  thought  a  long  time  had  passed  and 
felt  the  staff  giving  way  and  the  water  creeping  further 
up  his  body,  he  called  out  but  received  no  answer  ;  and 
it  was  not  until  the  water  had  reached  his  chest  that 
Johansen  came  and  pulled  him  out. 

For  a  few  days  they  were  storm-bound.  On  the 
3rd  of  June  they  started  again  down  the  channel,  their 
whereabouts  still  a  mystery  to  them,  nothing  in  the 
least  like  it  being  on  their  map.  Nine  days  after- 
wards, after  rounding  Cape  Barents  on  Northbrook 
Island,  the  kayaks,  which  had  been  left  moored  to  the 
edge  of  the  ice,  got  adrift.  Nansen,  running  down 
from  the  hummock,  from  which  he  had  been  looking 
round,  threw  off  some  of  his  clothes  and  sprang  into 
the  water.  The  wind  was  off  the  ice,  and  the  kayaks 
with  their  high  rigging  were  moving  away  as  fast  as 
he  could  swim.  It  seemed  more  than  doubtful  if  he 
could  reach  them.  But  all  their  hope  was  there,  all 
they  had  was  on  board ;  they  had  not  even  a  knife 
with  them,  and  whether  he  sank  or  turned  back 
amounted  to  much  the  same  thing.  When  he  tired 
he  turned  over  and  swam  on  his  back,  and  then  he 
could  see  Johansen  walking  restlessly  up  and  down  on 
the  ice,  unable  to  do  anything,  and  having  the  worst 
time  he  ever  lived  through.  But  the  wind  lulled,  and 
when  Nansen  turned  over  he  saw  he  was  nearing  the 
kayaks,  and  though  his  limbs  were  stiffening  and 


RECOVERING  THE  KAYAKS  ibl 

losing  all  feeling,  he  put  all  the  strength  he  could  into 
his  strokes,  and  eventually  was  able  to  reach  them. 
He  tried  to  pull  himself  up,  but  was  so  stiff  with  cold 
that  he  could  not  do  so.  For  a  moment  he  thought 
he  was  too  late ;  but  after  a  little  he  managed  to  swing 
one  leg  up  on  to  the  edge  of  the  sledge,  which  lay  on 
the  deck,  and  in  this  way  he  scrambled  on  board. 
The  kayaks  were  lashed  together  so  as  to  form  a 
double  boat,  and  the  only  way  in  which,  owing  to  his 
stiffness,  he  could  paddle  them  was  to  take  one  or  two 
strokes  on  one  side  and  then  step  into  the  other  kayak 
and  take  a  few  strokes  on  the  other  side.  The  return 
was  consequently  slow,  but  it  was  a  return,  though 
the  ice  was  reached  a  long  way  from  where  the  drifting 
had  begun. 

Next  day  but  one  came  another  perilous  episode. 
"  Towards  morning,"  says  Nansen,  "  we  rowed  for  some 
time  without  seeing  any  walrus,  and  now  felt  more 
secure.  Just  then  we  saw  a  solitary  rover  pop  up  a 
little  in  front  of  us.  Johansen,  who  was  in  front  at 
the  time,  put  in  to  a  sunken  ledge  of  ice  ;  and  although 
I  really  thought  that  this  was  caution  carried  to  excess, 
I  was  on  the  point  of  following  his  example.  I  had  not 
gone  so  far,  however,  when  suddenly  the  walrus  shot 
up  beside  me,  threw  himself  on  to  the  edge  of  the  kayak, 
took  hold  further  over  the  deck  with  one  flipper,  and 
as  it  tried  to  upset  me  aimed  a  blow  at  the  kayak  with 
its  tusks.  I  held  on  as  tightly  as  possible,  so  as  not 
to  be  upset  into  the  water,  and  struck  at  the  animal's 
head  with  the  paddle  as  hard  as  I  could.  It  took  hold  of 
the  kayak  once  more  and  tilted  me  up  so  that  the  deck 
was  almost  under  water,  then  let  go  and  raised  itself 


CAPE  CHELYUSKIN 
right  up.  I  seized  my  gun,  but  at  the  same  moment  it 
turned  round  and  disappeared  as  quickly  as  it  had 
come.  The  whole  thing  had  happened  in  a  moment, 
and  I  was  just  going  to  remark  to  Johansen  that  we 
were  fortunate  in  escaping  so  easily  from  that  adventure, 
when  I  noticed  that  my  legs  were  wet.  I  listened, 
and  now  heard  the  water  trickling  into  the  kayak 
under  me.  To  turn  and  run  her  in  on  to  the  sunken 
ledge  of  ice  was  the  work  of  a  moment,  but  I  sank 
there.  The  thing  was  to  get  out  and  on  to  the  ice, 
the  kayak  filling  all  the  time.  The  edge  of  the  ice  was 
high  and  loose,  but  I  managed  to  rise ;  and  Johansen, 
by  tilting  the  sinking  kayak  over  to  starboard,  so  that 
the  leak  came  above  the  water,  managed  to  bring  her 
to  a  place  where  the  ice  was  low  enough  to  admit  of 
our  drawing  her  up.  All  I  possessed  was  floating 
about  inside,  soaked  through.  So  here  we  lie,  with 
all  our  worldly  goods  spread  out  to  dry  and  a  kayak 
that  must  be  mended  before  we  can  face  the  walrus 
again.  It  is  a  good  big  rent  that  he  has  made,  at 
least  six  inches  long ;  but  it  is  fortunate  that  it  was  no 


worse." 


The  kayak  was  mended,  and,  after  a  long  rest,  it  was 
past  noon  on  the  17th  of  June  when  Nansen  turned 
out  to  prepare  breakfast.  After  doing  so  he  went  up 
on  a  hummock  to  look  around.  Flocks  of  little  auks 
were  flying  overhead,  and,  amid  the  confused  noise  of 
their  calls,  he  heard  a  couple  of  barks  from  a  dog. 
Thinking  he  was  mistaken  he  waited  for  a  time,  and 
then  the  barking  was  unmistakable,  bark  after  bark, 
one  of  a  deeper  tone  than  the  other.  He  shouted  to 
Johansen,  who  started  up  from  the  sleeping-bag  in- 


NANSEN  MEETS  JACKSON  103 

credulous.  The  sound  ceased,  and,  breakfast  over, 
Nansen  went  forth  to  investigate.  Soon  he  came  on 
the  footprints  of  a  dog  or  wolf,  and  then,  still  doubting, 
he  heard  a  distant  yelping  that  certainly  came  not  from 
a  wolf.  Making  his  way  among  the  hummocks,  he 
heard  a  shout  from  a  human  voice,  a  strange  voice — 
the  first  for  three  years.  Running  up  on  to  a  hum- 
mock he  shouted  with  all  his  might.  Back  came  a 
shout  in  reply ;  and  among  the  hummocks  he  caught 
sight  of  a  dog,  and  further  off  a  man  walked  into  view. 
The  man  spoke  to  the  dog  in  English.  Thinking  he 
recognised  Jackson,  Nansen  raised  his  hat  as  he  met 
him,  and  they  shook  hands  heartily. 

The  contrast  could  not  have  been  greater.  One  the 
well-groomed,  civilised  European  in  a  check  suit  and 
rubber  water-boots,  the  other  in  dirty  rags  black  with 
oil  and  soot,  with  long  matted  hair  and  shaggy  beard, 
and  a  face  in  which  the  complexion  was  undiscernible 
through  the  accumulations  which  a  winter's  endeavours, 
including  scrapings  with  a  knife,  had  failed  to  remove. 
As  they  talked  they  had  turned  to  go  inland.  Sud- 
denly Jackson  stopped,  and,  looking  the  new  arrival 
straight  in  the  face,  said— 

"Aren't  you  Nansen?" 

"Yes,  lam." 

"  By  Jove !     I'm  damned  glad  to  see  you." 

And  seizing  his  hand  he  shook  it  again,  his  whole 
face  beaming  with  a  smile  of  welcome  and  delight  at 
the  unexpected  meeting ;  and  needless  to  say,  both 
Nansen  and  Johansen  received  the  warmest  of  wel- 
comes from  all  at  Elmwood.  The  Windward  was  then 
on  her  way,  and  when  she  arrived  the  two  Norsemen 


104  CAPE   CHELYUSKIN 

from  the  farthest  north  went  in  her  to  Vardoe,  where 
they  landed  on  the  13th  of  August. 

Meanwhile  the  Fram  had  continued  her  leisurely 
drift,  north-west,  south-west,  north-west,  west,  then  all 
round  the  compass,  still  with  her  head  pointing  south, 
until  on  the  15th  of  November  she  reached  85°  55*5'  in 
longitude  66°  31',  thus  giving  Captain  Otto  Sverdrup 
the  honour  of  attaining  the  highest  north  in  a  ship. 
Another  winter  was  passed  in  her  ice-berth,  during 
which  she  moved  westerly.  In  February  came  another 
complete  triangle  in  her  course,  after  which  she  went 
south-west,  and  on  the  16th  of  May  turned  due  south. 
Then,  in  the  later  days  of  the  month  with  the  southerly 
drift  continuing  and  open  water  on  ahead,  Sverdrup 
resolved  to  set  her  free  by  mines,  and  on  the  3rd  of 
June,  as  a  result  of  the  blastings,  she  gave  a  lurch, 
settled  a  little  deeper  at  the  stern  and  moved  away 
from  the  edge  of  the  ice  until  the  hawsers  tautened. 
But,  though  she  was  afloat,  the  ice  around  still  kept  her 
captive,  and  in  the  pool  she  drifted  straight  towards 
Spitsbergen. 

Again  and  again  was  steam  got  up  and  endeavour 
made  to  break  a  way  out,  but  day  after  day  elapsed, 
and  it  was  not  until  the  13th  of  August  that  she  passed 
through  the  last  floes  into  open  water,  and  her  thirty- 
five  months  of  imprisonment  came  to  an  end.  Making 
for  Danes  Island  in  Spitsbergen,  she  was  there  boarded 
by  Andree,  who  was  then  preparing  for  his  disappear- 
ance in  the  balloon  voyage  to  the  Pole.  Going  on 
direct  to  Skjervoe  in  Norway,  Sverdrup  landed  at  two 
o'clock  in  the  morning  to  wake  up  the  telegraphist, 
who  told  him  that  Nansen  had  reached  Vardoe  a  week 


THE   MEETING  AT  TROMSOE  105 

before  and  was  then  at  Hammerfest  and  probably 
leaving  for  Tromsoe.  For  Tromsoe  Sverdrup  started, 
after  telegraphing  to  Nansen.  And  there,  at  four 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  the  25th  of  August,  1896, 
Sir  George  Bad  en -Powell's  yacht  Otaria,  with  Nansen 
and  Johansen  on  board,  glided  alongside  the  Fram,  the 
good  little  ship  looking  much  weather-beaten  though 
none  the  worse  for  such  a  task  of  strength  and  endur- 
ance as  had  been  set  no  other  in  the  story  of  the  sea. 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE   LENA   DELTA 

Discovery  of  the  Siberian  Islands — Hedenstrom — Anjou  and  Wrangell — 
Migration  of  reindeer — Animals  and  plants  of  the  tundra — The  north- 
ward migration  of  the  native  tribes — The  voyage  of  the  Jeannette — Her 
drift  in  the  pack — Jeannette  Island — Henrietta  Island — The  ship  crushed 
and  sunk — Landing  on  Bennett  Island — The  boat  voyage — The  boats 
separate  in  a  storm — De  Long  lands  on  the  Lena  Delta — Nindemann 
and  Noros  in  search  of  assistance — Safety  of  the  whale-boat — Fate  of 
De  Long  and  his  companions — Baron  Toll's  discoveries. 

THE  Siberian  Islands,  lying  north  of  the  delta  of 
the  Lena,  answer  to  the  Parry  Islands  on  the 
American  side,  the  two  groups  being  separated  by  that 
wide  stretch  of  the  Arctic  Ocean  communicating  with 
the  Pacific  through  Bering  Strait.  At  first  the  Asiatic 
group  was  officially  named  after  LiakhofF,  then  it  was 
called  after  the  unwisely  named  New  Siberia,  but, 
under  any  designation,  it  took  half  a  century  to  find 
the  different  islands,  and  considerably  more  to  land 
on  them. 

When  LiakhofF  discovered  the  one  named  after  him 
by  the  Empress  Catherine,  he  also  went  north  to 
Moloi,  and  he  seems  to  have  visited  Kotelnoi  to  the 
north-west.  In  1775  Chvoinof  was  sent  to  survey 
these  three,  but  he  devoted  most  of  his  attention  to 
LiakhofF  Island — fifty  miles  across — which  he  found 
to  consist,  as  reported,  of  hills  of  granite  rising  from 
a  mass  of  mammoth  bones,  sand,  and  ice,  some  of  the 

106 


THE  LENA  DELTA 


100  0  100  200          300  4OO  500 


To  face  page  106 


THE  SIBERIAN  ISLANDS  107 

ice  ancient  enough  to  carry  a  deep  covering  of  moss. 
Though  he  stated  that  other  islands  could  be  made 
out  in  the  distance,  nothing  was  done  to  verify  his 
discoveries,  real  or  imaginary,  until  thirty  years  had 
passed,  when  Thaddeus  and  Stolbovoi  were  reached. 
Next  year  (1806)  New  Siberia,  to  the  eastward,  was 
discovered  by  Sirovatskof,  and  two  years  afterwards 
Bjelkof  was  added  to  the  southerly  portion  of  the 
archipelago. 

In  1809  Hedenstrom,  assisted  by  Sannikof,  began 
his  series  of  surveys  extending  over  all  these,  and 
cleared  up  much  of  the  mystery  concerning  them. 
From  Thaddeus,  Sannikof  sighted,  away  to  the  north- 
ward, what  is  now  known  as  Bennett  Island ;  and, 
from  New  Siberia,  Hedenstrom  sighted  Henrietta  and 
Jeannette  Islands,  and  set  out  for  them,  and  would 
have  reached  them  had  his  sledges  not  been  stopped  by 
open  water.  Like  his  predecessors  he  was  astonished 
at  the  mammoth  remains  on  Liakhoff  Island. 

According  to  his  account,  "these  bones  or  tusks 
are  less  large  and  heavy  the  further  we  advance 
towards  the  north,  so  that  it  is  a  rare  occurrence  on 
the  islands  to  meet  with  a  tusk  of  more  than  108  Ibs. 
in  weight,  whereas  on  the  continent  they  are  said  often 
to  weigh  as  much  as  432  Ibs.  In  quantity,  however,  these 
bones  increase  wonderfully  to  the  northward,  and  as 
Sannikof  expresses  himself,  the  whole  soil  of  the  first 
of  the  Liakhoff  Islands  appears  to  consist  of  them. 
For  about  eighty  years  the  fur-hunters  have  every 
year  brought  large  cargoes  from  this  island,  but  as  yet 
there  is  no  sensible  diminution  of  the  stock.  The 
tusks  on  the  islands  are  also  much  more  fresh  and 


108  THE  LENA  DELTA 

white  than  those  on  the  continent.  A  sandbank  on 
the  western  side  was  most  productive  of  all,  and  the 
fur-hunters  maintain  that  when  the  sea  recedes  after  a 
long  continuance  of  easterly  winds,  a  fresh  supply  of 
mammoth  bones  is  always  found  to  have  been  washed 
from  this  bank,  proceeding  apparently  from  some  vast 
store  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea."  Besides  these  multi- 
tudinous remains  of  the  mammoth  Hedenstrom  found 
numerous  remains  of  rhinoceros,  the  horn  of  which 
was  then  thought  to  be  a  bird's  claw  three  feet  long. 

To  clear  up  the  wide  discrepancies  in  the  maps  the 
Emperor  Alexander,  in  1820,  equipped  two  expeditions 
to  proceed  by  land  to  the  northern  coast  of  Siberia 
and  properly  survey  it,  the  work  to  be  carried  as  far 
east  as  Cape  Chelagskoi,  whence  a  sledge  party  was  to 
start  for  the  north  in  search  of  the  inhabited  country  re- 
ported to  exist  in  the  Polar  Sea  in  that  direction.  One 
of  these  expeditions,  under  Lieutenant  P.  F.  Anjou, 
was  to  commence  its  operations  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Yana ;  the  other,  under  Lieutenant  Ferdinand 
Vrangel'  (or,  as  he  is  generally  known  amongst  us, 
Wrangell  or  Von  Wrangell),  was  to  start  from  the 
mouth  of  the  Kolyma,  his  chief  assistant  being  Mid- 
shipman Matiuschkin.  Both  parties  did  good  survey 
work,  but  neither  made  any  striking  discovery.  Anjou 
reached  76°  36'  to  the  north  of  Kotelnoi ;  Wrangell 
reached  72°  2'  (north-east  of  the  Bear  Islands,  one 
hundred  and  seventy-four  miles  out  on  the  sea  from 
the  great  Baranoff  rock),  beyond  which  progress  was 
impossible  owing  to  the  thinness  of  the  ice,  which  was 
covered  with  salt  water. 

Wrangell  had  many  perilous   experiences.     In   his 


A   MARVELLOUS   ESCAPE  109 

fourth  journey  over  the  sea  the  ice  broke  up  around 
him  and  he  found  himself  on  a  floe  with  a  labyrinth 
of  water  lanes  hemming  him  in  on  every  side  and  a 
storm  coming  on  from  the  westward.  The  storm 
rapidly  increased  in  fury,  and  the  masses  of  ice  around 
him  were  soon  dashing  against  each  other  and  break- 
ing in  all  directions.  On  the  floe,  which  was  tossing  to 
and  fro  on  the  waves,  he  gazed  in  painful  inactivity  on 
the  conflict,  expecting  every  moment  to  be  swallowed 
up.  For  three  long  hours  he  had  remained  unable  to 
move,  the  mass  of  ice  beneath  him  holding  together, 
when  it  was  caught  by  the  storm  and  hurled  against  a 
large  field  of  ice.  The  crash  was  terrific,  as  it  was 
shattered  into  little  pieces.  At  that  dreadful  moment, 
when  escape  seemed  impossible,  he  was  saved  by  the 
impulse  of  self-preservation.  Instinctively  the  party 
sprang  on  to  the  sledges  and  urged  the  dogs  to  full 
speed,  and  as  hard  as  they  could  gallop  they  skimmed 
across  the  yielding  fragments  to  the  field  on  which 
they  had  been  stranded,  and  safely  reached  a  stretch 
of  firmer  ice,  where  the  dogs  ceased  running  among 
the  hummocks,  conscious  that  the  danger  was  past. 

But  it  is  not  so  much  for  adventures  like  this  that  his 
account  of  his  work  is  of  continuing  interest  as  for  the 
abundance  of  its  notes  and  reflections  on  the  country 
and  its  life  and  climate.  Once,  for  instance,  when  on 
the  Baranicha  he  was  fortunate  enough  to  witness  a 
migration  of  reindeer.  "I  had  hardly  finished  the 
observation,"  he  says,  "  when  my  whole  attention  was 
called  to  a  highly  interesting,  and  to  me  a  perfectly 
novel,  spectacle.  Two  large  migrating  bodies  of  rein- 
deer passed  us  at  no  great  distance.  They  were  de- 


110  THE  LENA  DELTA 

scending  the  hills  from  the  north-west  and  crossing  the 
plain  on  their  way  to  the  forests,  where  they  spend  the 
winter.  Both  bodies  of  deer  extended  further  than  the 
eye  could  reach,  and  formed  a  compact  mass,  narrow- 
ing towards  the  front.  They  moved  slowly  and  majes- 
tically along,  their  broad  antlers  resembling  a  moving 
wood  of  leafless  trees.  Each  body  was  led  by  a  deer  of 
unusual  size,  which  my  guides  assured  me  was  always  a 
female.  One  of  the  herds  was  stealthily  followed  by  a 
wolf,  who  was  apparently  watching  for  an  opportunity 
of  seizing  any  one  of  the  younger  and  weaker  deer 
which  might  fall  behind  the  rest,  but  on  seeing  us  he 
made  off  in  another  direction.  The  other  column  was 
followed  at  some  distance  by  a  large  black  bear,  who, 
however,  appeared  only  intent  on  digging  out  a  mouse's 
nest  every  now  and  then,  so  much  so  that  he  took  no 
notice  of  us.  We  had  great  difficulty  in  restraining 
our  two  dogs,  but  happily  succeeded  in  doing  so  ;  their 
barking,  or  any  sound  or  motion  on  our  part,  might 
have  alarmed  the  deer,  and  by  turning  them  from  their 
course,  have  proved  a  terrible  misfortune  to  the  hun- 
ters, who  were  awaiting  their  passage,  on  which  they 
are  entirely  dependent  for  support.  We  remained  for 
two  hours  whilst  the  herds  of  deer  were  passing  by, 
and  then  resumed  our  march." 

The  way  in  which  the  deer  are  dealt  with  by  the 
hunters  was  seen  by  Matiuschkin  when  despatched  by 
Wrangell  to  survey  the  Anyui.  "The  true  harvest, 
which  we  arrived  just  in  time  to  see,  is  in  August  or 
September,  when  the  reindeer  are  returning  from  the 
plains  to  the  forests.  They  are  then  healthy  and  well 
fed,  the  venison  is  excellent,  and  as  they  have  just 


THE  MIGRATION  OF  THE  REINDEER         111 

acquired  their  winter  coats  the  fur  is  thick  and  warm. 
The  difference  of  the  quality  of  the  skins  at  the  two 
seasons  is  such,  that  whilst  an  autumn  skin  is  valued  at 
five  or  six  roubles,  a  spring  one  will  only  fetch  one  or 
one  and  a  half  roubles.  In  good  years  the  migrating 
body  of  reindeer  consists  of  many  thousands ;  and 
though  they  are  divided  into  herds  of  two  or  three 
hundred  each,  yet  the  herds  keep  so  near  together  as  to 
form  only  one  immense  mass,  which  is  sometimes  from 
thirty  to  seventy  miles  in  breadth.  They  always 
follow  the  same  route,  and  in  crossing  the  river  near 
Plotbischtsche,  they  choose  a  place  where  a  dry  valley 
leads  down  to  the  stream  on  one  side,  and  a  flat  sandy 
shore  facilitates  their  landing  on  the  other  side.  As 
each  separate  herd  approaches  the  river,  the  deer  draw 
more  closely  together,  and  the  largest  and  strongest 
takes  the  lead.  He  advances,  closely  followed  by  a 
few  of  the  others,  with  head  erect,  and  apparently 
intent  on  examining  the  locality.  When  he  has  satis- 
fied himself,  he  enters  the  river,  the  rest  of  the  herd 
crowd  after  him,  and  in  a  few  minutes  the  surface  is 
covered  with  them.  Then  the  hunters,  who  have  been 
concealed  to  leeward,  rush  in  their  light  canoes  from 
their  hiding-places,  surround  the  deer,  and  delay  their 
passage,  whilst  two  or  three  chosen  men  armed  with 
short  spears  dash  into  the  middle  of  the  herd  and  de- 
spatch large  numbers  in  an  incredibly  short  time  ;  or  at 
least  wound  them  so,  that,  if  they  reach  the  bank,  it  is 
only  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  women  and  children. 
The  office  of  the  spearman  is  a  very  dangerous  one. 
It  is  no  easy  thing  to  keep  the  light  boat  afloat  among 
the  dense  crowd  of  swimming  deer,  which,  moreover, 


112  THE   LENA  DELTA 

make  considerable  resistance ;  the  males  with  their 
horns,  teeth,  and  hind  legs,  whilst  the  females  try  to 
overset  the  boat  by  getting  their  fore-feet  over  the 
gunwale ;  if  they  succeed  in  this  the  hunter  is  lost,  for 
it  is  hardly  possible  that  he  should  extricate  himself 
from  the  throng ;  but  the  skill  of  these  people  is  so 
great  that  accidents  very  rarely  occur.  A  good  hunter 
may  kill  a  hundred  or  more  in  less  than  half  an  hour. 
When  the  herd  is  large,  and  gets  into  disorder,  it  often 
happens  that  their  antlers  become  entangled  with  each 
other ;  they  are  then  unable  to  defend  themselves,  and 
the  business  is  much  easier.  Meanwhile  the  rest  of  the 
boats  pick  up  the  slain  and  fasten  them  together  with 
thongs,  and  every  one  is  allowed  to  keep  what  he  lays 
hold  of  in  this  manner.  It  might  seem  that  in  this 
way  nothing  would  be  left  to  requite  the  spearmen  for 
their  skill,  and  the  danger  they  have  encountered  ;  but 
whilst  everything  taken  in  the  river  is  the  property  of 
whoever  secures  it,  the  wounded  animals  which  reach 
the  bank  before  they  fall,  belong  to  the  spearman  who 
wounded  them.  The  skill  and  experience  of  these  men 
are  such  that  in  the  thickest  of  the  conflict,  when 
every  energy  is  taxed  to  the  uttermost,  and  their  life  is 
every  moment  at  stake,  they  have  sufficient  presence  of 
mind  to  contrive  to  measure  the  force  of  their  blows  so 
as  to  kill  the  smallest  animals  outright,  but  only  to 
wound  the  larger  and  finer  ones,  so  that  they  may  be 
just  able  to  reach  the  bank.  Such  proceeding  is  not 
sanctioned  by  the  general  voice,  but  it  seems  neverthe- 
less to  be  almost  always  practised.  The  whole  scene  is 
of  a  most  singular  and  curious  character,  and  quite 
indescribable.  The  throng  of  thousands  of  swimming 


THE  TUNDRA  113 

reindeer,  the  sound  produced  by  the  striking  together 
of  their  antlers,  the  swift  canoes  dashing  in  amongst 
them,  the  terror  of  the  frightened  animals,  the  danger 
of  the  hunters,  the  shouts  of  warning  advice  or  applause 
from  their  friends,  the  blood-stained  water,  and  all  the 
accompanying  circumstances,  form  a  whole  which  no 
one  can  picture  to  himself  without  having  witnessed 
the  scene." 

The  tundra  has  no  more  characteristic  animal  than 
the  reindeer.  Over  the  mossy  hillocks  and  the  matted 
tops  of  the  dwarf  birches  he  runs,  or  through  the  rivers 
and  lakes  he  swims,  with  his  broad-hoofed,  spade-like 
feet  never  at  a  loss  to  find  a  footing.  In  the  long 
winter  he  is  protected  by  his  thick  skin  against  the 
influence  of  the  cold,  and  is  seldom  at  starvation  point, 
as  he  digs  for  food  in  the  deepest  snow,  and  is  by  no 
means  particular  what  he  eats ;  and  in  the  short 
summer  he  is  in  luxurious  ease,  for  the  tundra,  as  we 
have  seen,  is  not  always  as  bad  as  it  is  painted.  In 
exposed  places  near  the  coast  it  is  little  else  than 
gravel  beds  interspersed  with  patches  of  peat  and 
clay,  with  scarcely  a  rush  or  a  sedge  to  break  the 
monotony,  but  by  far  the  greater  part  of  it  is  a  gently 
undulating  plain,  broken  up  by  lakes,  rivers,  swamps, 
and  bogs ;  the  lakes  with  patches  of  green  water- 
plants,  the  rivers  flowing  between  sedges  and  rushes, 
the  swamps  the  breeding  haunts  of  ruffs  and  phala- 
ropes,  the  bogs  dotted  with  the  white  fluffy  seeds  of 
the  cotton-grass.  Almost  everywhere  the  birds  are  in 
noticeable  numbers,  among  the  commonest  being  the 
golden  plover  (who  wears  the  tundra  colours),  the  blue- 
throat,  the  fieldfare,  the  whooper  swan,  and  the 


114  THE   LENA  DELTA 

ducks  and  divers — particularly  the  divers — and,  among 
the  birds  of  prey,  the  falcons  and  the  rough-legged 
buzzards,  which,  with  the  owls,  find  such  abundant 
provision  in  the  lemmings  that  migrate  in  myriads 
compared  with  which  the  reindeer  troops  are  in- 
significant. 

"  The  groundwork  of  all  this  variegated  scenery," 
says  Seebohm,  "is  more  beautiful  and  varied  still — 
lichens  and  mosses  of  almost  every  conceivable  colour, 
from  the  cream-coloured  reindeer-moss  to  the  scarlet- 
cupped  trumpet-moss,  interspersed  with  a  brilliant 
alpine  flora,  gentians,  anemones,  saxifrages,  and  hun- 
dreds of  plants,  each  a  picture  in  itself,  the  tall  aconites, 
both  the  blue  and  yellow  species,  the  beautiful  cloud- 
berry, with  its  gay  white  blossom  and  amber  fruit, 
the  fragrant  Ledum  palustre  and  the  delicate  pink 
Andromeda  polifolia.  In  the  sheltered  valleys  and 
deep  water-courses  a  few  stunted  birches,  and  some- 
times large  patches  of  willow  scrub,  survive  the  long 
severe  winter,  and  serve  as  cover  for  willow-grouse  or 
ptarmigan.  The  Lapland  bunting  and  red-throated 
pipit  are  everywhere  to  be  seen,  and  certain  favoured 
places  are  the  breeding-grounds  of  plovers  and  sand- 
pipers of  many  species.  So  far  from  meriting  the  name 
of  Barren  Ground,  the  tundra  is  for  the  most  part  a 
veritable  paradise  in  summer.  But  it  has  one  almost 
fatal  drawback — it  swarms  with  mosquitoes." 

The  beauty  of  the  tundra  is,  however,  transient  and 
skin  deep ;  it  is  only  such  plants  as  can  live  in  the  soil 
that  thaws  that  survive.  Wherever  the  ground  is  dug 
into,  ice  is  sure  to  be  reached ;  in  fact,  it  may  be  said 
that  ice  is  one  of  the  rocks  of  the  subsoil,  and  in  some 


THE   NATIONS  OF  THE   COAST  115 

places  these  strata  of  ice  that  never  melts  have  been 
found  to  be  three  hundred  feet  thick — ice  that  has 
remained  in  block  since  the  mammoths  got  into  cold 
storage  in  it  ages  ago,  for  otherwise  they  would  not 
have  lasted  intact  in  skin  and  flesh  as  many  have  done, 
like  the  very  first  discovered  in  a  complete  state,  that 
chipped  out  by  Adams  in  1807. 

In  such  a  climate,  whose  winter  terrors  are  only  too 
prominent,  all  along  the  north  of  Siberia  live  the 
ancient  peoples  driven  towards  the  sea  by  those 
mighty  movements  from  the  land  of  the  Turk  and 
Mongol  which,  north  and  south,  east  and  west, 
flooded  Europe  and  Asia  with  invaders — Ostiaks  and 
Samoyeds  west  of  Chelyuskin ;  Yakuts,  Chukches, 
and  others  to  the  east  of  it,  the  descriptions  of  whose 
unpleasant  manners  and  customs  appear  to  be  written 
with  a  view  to  showing  how  curiously  local  are  the 
laws  of  health.  One  may  well  ask,  as  Wrangell  did, 
why  they  should  remain  in  so  dreary  a  region  and 
take  life  so  contentedly.  And  the  answer  may  be 
that  they  might  go  further  north  and  fare  worse,  as 
their  predecessors  in  the  eastern  section  would  seem 
to  have  done.  Once,  according  to  the  legend,  there 
were  more  hearths  of  the  Omoki  on  the  shores  of  the 
Kolyma  than  there  are  stars  in  the  clear  sky,  and  these 
Omoki,  or  some  other  departed  race,  appear  to  have 
left  as  their  traces  the  remains  of  the  timber  forts  and 
the  tumuli  that  are  found  on  the  coast,  especially  near 
the  Indiyirka,  and  the  huts  of  earth  and  stones  and 
bones  found  all  along  from  Chelagskoi  to  the  straits, 
similar  remains  of  a  departed  people  now  existing  in 
the  Parry  Islands,  over  a  thousand  miles  away. 


116  THE   LENA   DELTA 

According  to  another  legend  of  more  recent  date, 
there  was  an  intervening  land,  the  land  that  Wrangell 
went  to  seek  and  the  Jeannette  went  to  winter  at, 
and  the  supposed  site  of  which  she  drifted  through,  in 
her  last  and  longest  imprisonment  in  the  ice. 

The  Jeannette  was  the  old  Pandora,  bought  from 
Sir  Allen  Young  by  James  Gordon  Bennett,  and 
accepted  by  and  fitted  out,  officered,  and  manned 
under  the  orders  of  the  Navy  Department  of  the 
United  States,  her  commander  being  Lieutenant 
George  Washington  De  Long.  She  left  San  Fran- 
cisco on  the  8th  of  July,  1879,  and  two  months  after- 
wards had  been  run  into  the  pack  and  was  fast  in  the 
ice  off  Herald  Island,  drifting  to  her  doom.  Her 
route,  in  the  main,  was  north-westerly,  with  many 
complicated  loops,  at  first  at  the  rate  of  half  a  mile  a 
day,  then  at  two  miles,  then  at  three,  showing  that 
the  current  from  Bering  Strait  had  been  reinforced  by 
some  other  current  as  she  went  further  west,  and, 
from  its  direction,  there  seemed  to  be  land  to  the 
northward  which  was  never  sighted. 

Wrangell  Land,  passed  to  the  south,  proved  to  be 
not  a  continent  but  a  small  island.  No  other  land  was 
seen  for  a  monotonous  twenty  months,  and  then,  in 
May,  1881,  the  ship  drifted,  stern  first,  past  that 
sighted  by  Hedenstrom  from  New  Siberia,  which  was 
found  to  consist  of  two  islands,  to  be  henceforth  known 
as  Jeannette  and  Henrietta.  On  the  12th  of  June,  in 
latitude  77°  14'  57",  the  Jeannette  was  crushed  and  sank, 
her  fore  yardarms  breaking  upwards  as  she  slipped 
down  through  the  rift  in  the  pack,  and  a  start  was 
made  for  the  Siberian  Islands  over  the  ice;  but  the 


DE   LONG'S   BOAT   VOYAGE  117 

drift  had  taken  the  party  to  77°  36',  before  they  got 
on  their  proper  course,  and  after  a  most  laborious 
journey,  lasting  up  to  the  28th  of  July,  they  were  safe 
ashore  on  the  land  sighted  by  Sannikof  from  Thaddeus, 
which  De  Long  named  Bennett  Island. 

Bennett  Island  was  left  on  the  7th  of  August,  the 
party  of  thirty-three  being  in  three  boats,  thirteen 
under  De  Long  in  the  first  cutter,  ten  under  Lieu- 
tenant Chipp  in  the  much  smaller  second  cutter,  and 
ten,  under  Engineer  George  W.  Melville,  whose  skill 
and  resourcefulness  had  been  conspicuous  throughout, 
were  given  the  whale-boat,  the  most  suitable  of  the 
three.  Sail  was  made  for  Thaddeus  Island,  which  was 
reached  in  safety ;  after  a  halt  of  some  days  it  was  left 
on  the  31st  of  August.  Then  Kotelnoi  Island  was 
reached  and  rested  at ;  then  the  boats  made  for  Semo- 
novski,  which  was  left  on  the  12th  of  September. 

The  same  day  a  gale  came  on  in  which  the  first 
cutter  had  great  difficulty  in  keeping  afloat,  the  second 
cutter  disappeared  never  to  be  heard  of  again,  and  the 
whale-boat,  behaving  excellently,  went  off  before  the 
wind  straight  for  the  continent  to  reach  in  safety  one 
of  the  eastern  mouths  of  the  Lena,  up  which  Melville 
arrived  at  a  Russian  village  on  the  26th  of  September. 
De  Long's  party  ran  their  boat  aground  in  shallow 
water,  on  the  17th  of  September,  and  rafted  and  waded 
ashore  to  one  of  the  most  inhospitable  spots  on  the 
globe.  Heavily  laden  they  made  their  way  down  the 
dreary  delta,  toiling  through  the  snow,  delayed  by  the 
tributaries  which  were  not  frozen  over  hard  enough  to 
bear,  hampered  by  sickness  and  disablement,  and  finally 
dying  one  by  one  of  starvation. 


118  THE   LENA   DELTA 

On  the  9th  of  October  De  Long  sent  two  of  the  sea- 
men, Nindemann  and  Noros,  ahead  in  search  of  relief. 
They  had  no  food  but  what  they  could  find,  and  on  the 
second  day  out  their  dinner  consisted  of  a  little  willow 
tea  and  a  burnt  boot  sole.  Next  morning  they  burnt 
another  sole  of  a  boot,  and  they  spent  the  day  strug- 
gling through  a  morass  in  drifting  snow,  crossing 
streams  of  all  sizes,  and  halting  for  the  night  in  so  high 
a  wind  that  they  were  unable  to  light  a  fire  and  took 
refuge  in  a  hole  in  the  snow  from  which  they  emerged 
with  difficulty  in  the  morning,  owing  to  the  wind  having 
piled  up  the  snow  against  the  opening.  At  the  end  of 
the  third  day  they  reached  a  deserted  hut  in  which 
were  some  deer  bones,  which  they  grilled  and  tried  to 
eat,  and  in  the  morning  a  gale  was  blowing  and  the 
wild  drifting  snow  was  so  thick  that  they  had  to  remain 
where  they  were  and  continue  their  diet  of  charred 
bones  and  willow  tea. 

Next  day,  Thursday,  the  13th  of  October,  they 
began  against  a  strong  head  wind.  In  the  afternoon 
they  sighted  a  hut  on  the  west  bank  of  the  river. 
"They  had  seen  one  in  the  morning,  but  had  in  vain 
attempted  to  cross  the  ice  to  it.  Now  they  tried  to 
reach  this,  but  were  turned  back  by  the  brittle  ice. 
They  kept  it  in  sight  as  they  moved  southward,  and 
made  another  attempt  to  cross  the  ice,  but  it  broke  and 
they  came  back.  Then  they  saw  that  there  was  no 
further  progress  possible  to  the  southward  on  that  side 
of  the  water,  and  they  returned  to  the  ice.  It  broke 
again,  but  they  kept  on.  They  went  in  up  to  their 
waists,  but  managed  to  pull  themselves  up  on  the 
stronger  ice."  The  wind  was  blowing  against  them 


NINDEMANN  AND  NOROS  119 

and  the  ice  was  like  glass,  so  that  they  were  driven 
back.  They  looked  about  for  ice  which  had  been 
roughened  by  the  ripples  beneath,  and  finding  some 
they  succeeded  at  length  in  reaching  the  other  side, 
where  were  two  wooden  crosses  beneath  a  bank,  which 
rose  fifty  feet  above  them.  They  pulled  themselves  up 
the  bank,  but  when  they  came  to  the  hut  which  they 
had  kept  in  sight  they  found  it  a  ruin  nearly  full  of 
snow.  "  While  Noros  was  trying  to  make  a  place  in  it 
for  shelter,  Nindemann  saw  a  black  object  farther  along 
to  the  south  and  went  to  it.  It  was  a  small  peaked 
hut  without  a  door,  but  large  enough  to  hold  two  men. 
There  were  some  fresh  wood  shavings  outside  the  hut 
and  higher  up  on  the  hill  two  boxes.  On  going  to 
them  Nindemann  found  them  old  and  decayed,  and  he 
began  to  break  one  of  them  open.  When  he  had 
ripped  off  the  top  he  discovered  that  there  was  another 
box  enclosed ;  breaking  into  it  he  found  a  dead  body, 
and  hastily  left  it.  Doubtless  the  two  crosses  below  on 
the  river  bank  were  memorials  of  the  two  beings  left 
high  up  above  the  reach  of  the  floods." 

In  the  small  hut  they  found  a  sort  of  floor,  the 
boards  of  which  they  pulled  up  for  firewood,  and  in  a 
hole  beneath  was  a  box  in  which  were  a  couple  of  fish 
and  two  fish  heads ;  and,  as  these  were  discovered,  a 
lemming  came  out  of  another  hole  and  was  promptly 
caught.  On  the  lemming,  roasted  on  the  ramrod,  and 
the  fishes,  which  were  so  decayed  that  they  dropped 
apart  as  they  were  handled,  they  made  their  meal  for 
that  day.  Next  day  the  snowstorm  was  so  heavy  that 
they  were  driven  back  here  after  striving  in  vain  to 
make  headway.  On  the  Saturday,  still  without  food, 


120  THE   LENA   DELTA 

they  rested  for  the  night  in  a  fissure  in  the  river  bank, 
where  as  a  last  resource  Nindemann  cut  a  piece  off  his 
sealskin  trousers  and  soaked  it  in  water  and  burnt  it  to 
a  crust.  Their  breakfast  consisted  of  the  remains  of 
this  toasted  sealskin.  During  the  day  they  saw  a  crow 
flying  across  the  river  and  in  among  the  hills,  and,  as 
the  crow  in  these  regions  is  rarely  found  away  from  the 
haunts  of  men,  Nindemann  decided  to  cross  the  river 
in  the  hope  of  meeting  with  either  natives  or  game  on 
the  other  side.  When  darkness  came  on  no  shelter 
was  discoverable,  and  so,  after  a  meal  of  more  sealskin 
and  hot  water,  they  went  to  rest  in  a  hole  in  the  snow. 
Next  day,  during  which  they  recrossed  the  river,  their 
experiences  were  similar  and  the  end  the  same. 

On  Tuesday  the  18th,  after  a  terrible  day,  they  came 
upon  a  hut  with  a  pile  of  wood  close  by,  which  proved 
to  be  sledges,  and  these  they  broke  up,  as  there  was  no 
other  firing.  Next  day  as  they  were  struggling  on 
they  reached  a  place  where  there  were  three  huts,  in 
one  of  which  was  a  half-kayak  and  in  it  was  some  blue 
mouldy  fish ;  and  here,  attacked  by  dysentery,  they 
remained  until  the  Saturday,  unable  to  go  any  further. 
About  noon  there  was  a  noise  outside  like  a  flock  of 
geese  sweeping  by.  Nindemann,  looking  through  the 
crack  of  the  door,  saw  something  moving  which  he  took 
to  be  a  reindeer,  and  was  going  out  with  his  rifle  when 
the  door  opened  and  a  man  entered,  who  promptly  fell 
on  his  knees  when  he  caught  sight  of  the  gun.  Ninde- 
mann threw  the  rifle  into  a  corner  and,  trying  to  make 
friends  with  the  man  by  signs,  offered  him  some  of  the 
fish,  which  the  man  by  an  emphatic  gesture  pro- 
nounced not  fit  to  eat.  After  some  more  of  the  sign 


FOUND   BY   THE   NATIVES  1.21 

language  it  was  clear  that  the  native  had  no  food  with 
him,  and  holding  up  three  or  four  fingers  to  show  that 
he  would  return  in  so  many  hours  or  days  he  drove  off. 
About  six  o'clock  in  the  evening,  while  they  were  pre- 
paring their  fish  dinner,  the  visitor  returned  with  two 
other  men,  one  of  whom  brought  in  a  frozen  fish  which 
he  skinned  and  sliced,  and  while  the  sailors  were  eating 
it — the  first  healthy  meal  they  had  had  for  weeks — the 
natives  invited  them  to  accompany  them,  and  brought 
in  deerskin  coats  and  boots  and  finally  got  them  into 
the  sledges  and  drove  off  to  the  westward  for  about 
fifteen  miles.  Here  there  were  two  tents,  and  Ninde- 
mann  was  taken  into  one,  Noros  into  the  other,  and 
both  were  well  looked  after,  the  natives  doing  their 
very  best  to  get  them  well. 

This  was  intelligible  on  both  sides,  for  the  language 
of  kindness  is  universal,  but  as  the  sailors  knew  not  the 
language  of  their  hosts,  and  the  natives  knew  not  the 
language  of  their  guests,  the  difficulty  of  being  under- 
stood by  each  other  was  great,  and  the  delivery  of  the 
urgent  message  in  signs  was  almost  impossible.  Ninde- 
mann  did  his  best ;  he  appealed  to  the  man  who  seemed 
to  be  the  head  of  the  party,  and  drawing  in  the  snow  a 
map  of  the  places  where  he  had  been,  with  every  com- 
bination of  signs  he  could  think  of,  he  tried  to  explain 
what  he  wanted.  That  he  succeeded  to  a  certain 
extent  was  clear,  though  he  did  not  think  so  at  first,  for 
the  natives  loaded  up  their  sledges,  twenty-seven  in 
number,  with  reindeer  meat  and  skins  and  fish,  and 
struck  their  tents,  and,  with  over  a  hundred  head  of 
deer  harnessed  up,  started  for  the  south.  At  noon, 
when  the  deer  were  resting,  the  man  for  whom  the 


122  THE   LENA  DELTA 

map  had  been  drawn  in  the  snow  took  Nindemann  to 
where  he  could  show  him  a  prominent  landmark,  and 
asked  by  signs  if  that  was  where  he  had  left  his 
friends.  And  on  learning  by  signs  that  it  was  further 
to  the  north,  he  shook  his  head  as  if  sorry,  and  resumed 
his  journey  to  the  south.  During  the  next  day  they 
reached  Ku  Mark  Surka,  where  there  were  a  number  of 
natives  who  were  much  interested  in  the  new-comers, 
and  again  the  sailors  used  every  effort  to  deliver  their 
message. 

Immediately  after  breakfast  on  the  morning  of  the 
25th,  Nindemann  began  talking  to  these  people  in 
signs  and  pantomime.  Soon  one  of  them  showed  that 
he  had  an  idea  of  where  the  sailors  came  from,  for 
he  spoke  to  one  of  the  boys,  who  ran  off  and  returned 
with  a  model  of  a  Yakutsk  boat.  Then  they  gathered 
round  and  evidently  asked  if  the  ship  was  anything 
like  it.  And  in  answer,  Nindemann  took  up  some 
sticks  and  placed  three  of  them  in  the  boat  to  show 
that  his  ship  had  three  masts,  and  then  he  fastened 
smaller  sticks  across  to  show  that  she  had  yards,  which 
seemed  to  surprise  them  greatly.  Then  he  made  a 
funnel  out  of  wood  and  put  it  in  position,  and  pointed 
to  the  fire  and  smoke  to  show  that  she  was  a  steamer, 
and  then  he  cut  out  a  propeller  with  his  knife  and  put 
it  where  the  rudder  was  to  show  that  she  was  a  screw. 
Continuing  his  work  he  soon  chipped  out  so  many 
small  boats  to  show  how  many  she  had ;  and  then, 
signing  to  one  of  the  men  to  get  him  two  pieces  of  ice, 
he  showed  them  how  the  ship  had  been  crushed. 
Pointing  to  the  northward  he  tried  to  tell  them  that 
the  ship  had  been  crushed  up  there ;  and  then  he  put 


AN  EFFORT  IN  SIGN  LANGUAGE 
away  the  ship  and  kept  only  three  of  the  little  boats  to 
tell  that  part  of  the  story,  and  in  the  boats  he  put  so 
many  sticks  to  represent  the  number  of  men  in  each. 
When  he  had  done  this  one  of  the  men  pointed  to  a 
dog  that  was  looking  on  and  asked  if  the  ship  had  any, 
whereupon  the  sailor  counted  on  his  fingers  to  show 
there  were  about  forty,  and  by  pantomime  explained 
that  they  had  been  shot.  This  being  evidently 
understood,  Nindemann  drew  a  chart  of  the  coast-line, 
and  imitating  a  gale  of  wind  showed  that  the  boat  he 
came  from  went  to  the  land  at  a  certain  point  and  that 
he  knew  nothing  of  the  others.  Then  he  went  on  to 
show  how  they  had  all  left  the  boat,  waded  ashore  and 
walked  along  the  river-bank,  and  he  marked  the  huts 
where  they  had  stopped,  and  then  he  indicated  where 
one  of  the  men  had  died  and  been  buried  in  the  river. 
This  was  understood,  for  all  the  audience  shook  their 
heads  as  if  to  say  how  sorry  they  were.  But  when  he 
tried  to  tell  them  that  he  had  left  the  captain  two  days 
afterwards  and  had  been  so  many  days  on  the  way  to 
ask  for  help,  they  showed  that  they  either  did  not  or 
would  not  understand ;  and  really  it  was  not  easy  to 
make  such  a  matter  clear. 

Next  day  Nindemann  made  another  attempt  to  get 
them  to  understand  the  one  essential,  urgent  fact  that 
help  was  needed,  or  the  men  would  die ;  but  no,  he 
could  not  do  it.  On  the  Thursday,  despairing  of  the 
hopelessness  of  his  task  and  the  helplessness  of  his 
companions,  he  broke  into  tears  and  groans,  and  a 
woman  in  the  hut  took  pity  on  him  and  spoke  earnestly 
to  one  of  the  men,  who  came  and  said  something 
about  a  commandant.  Then  the  sailor,  who  had 


THE  LENA  DELTA 
picked  up  a  few  words,  asked  him  to  take  him  to 
Bulun,  to  which  the  man  replied  by  again  saying 
commandant  and  holding  up  five  or  six  fingers.  Late  in 
the  evening  there  arrived  a  tall  Russian,  whom  Ninde- 
mann  supposed  to  be  the  commandant  and  addressed 
in  English,  but  he  was  a  Russian  exile  who  could 
not  understand  him,  though  he  seemed  to  know  some- 
thing about  the  matter,  for  in  what  he  said  he  clearly 
mentioned  Jeannette  and  Americansk.  Nindemann 
tried  him  in  German,  but  at  this  he  shook  his  head. 
Then  Nindemann  showed  him  the  chart  given  him  by 
De  Long,  which  the  Russian  evidently  did  not  under- 
stand, though  he  said  something  that  sounded  like 
St.  Petersburg  and  telegrams.  While  this  apparently 
hopeless  conversation  was  going  on  Noros  was  busy 
steadily  writing  out  a  note  that  the  two  sailors  had 
drawn  up,  and  the  tall  Russian — who  we  shall  see  was 
really  a  most  intelligent  man — giving  over  his  talk 
with  Nindemann  in  despair,  coolly  picked  this  up  and 
put  it  in  his  pocket,  and  notwithstanding  the  protest 
of  the  Americans,  walked  off  with  it.  In  the  morning 
he  came  in  and  gave  them  to  understand  that  he  was 
going  to  Bulun,  and  that  they  were  to  follow,  and 
soon  afterwards  the  natives  fitted  them  out  with 
clothing  and  boots  and  food  and  sent  them  off  on  a 
sledge.  At  Bulun  they  were  taken  to  the  comman- 
dant, who,  after  a  little  sign  language  from  Ninde- 
mann, showed  that  he  understood,  and  said  something 
about  a  telegram.  The  sailors  jumped  at  the  idea, 
and  one  of  them  dictated  to  the  other  a  despatch  to 
the  American  Minister  at  St.  Petersburg.  This  the 
Russian  took,  explaining  that  the  captain  should  have 


FOUND   BY   MELVILLE  125 

it  next  day.  Who  the  captain  was  the  sailors  could 
not  make  out ;  but  three  days  afterwards,  that  is  on 
the  3rd  of  November,  while  Nindemann  lay  on  the 
bed  and  Noros  was  sitting  on  the  table,  a  man  came  in 
dressed  in  fur. 

"My  God,  Mr.  Melville!"  said  Noros,  recognising 
him  as  soon  as  he  spoke.  "Are  you  alive ?  We 
thought  that  the  whale-boats  were  all  dead  ! " 

The  exile  had  handed  the  note  to  Melville,  whom  he 
knew  as  the  captain,  and  his  difficulty  in  understanding 
the  sailors  had  been  in  their  speaking  of  one  boat 
while  he  had  only  seen  the  other.  The  whale-boat 
crew  had  reached  a  village  opposite  to  where  he  lived, 
and  he  had  agreed  to  take  them  to  Bulun,  and  he  was 
on  his  way  there  to  arrange  for  their  transport  when  he 
heard  of  the  sailors.  Like  a  sensible  man  he  ordered 
the  men  to  be  sent  to  Bulun,  and  had  hurried  there, 
made  his  arrangements  with  the  commandant  and  re- 
turned to  Melville,  who,  seeing  the  urgency  of  the 
case  as  soon  as  he  read  the  letter,  had  started  at  once, 
leaving  his  party  to  follow. 

Melville,  as  soon  as  possible,  went  off  along  the 
track  of  the  two  sailors,  who  were  too  weak  to  go 
with  him,  and  eventually  found  the  chronometer  and 
the  log-books  and  other  records ;  but  the  winter  was 
too  far  advanced  for  him  to  do  more,  and  he  had 
to  return,  after  a  journey  of  over  six  hundred  miles, 
to  try  again  in  the  spring.  Then,  accompanied  by 
Nindemann,  he  went  north,  and  came  upon  the  bodies 
of  the  commander  and  those  who  had  perished  with 
him,  and  three  or  four  feet  behind  De  Long,  as  if 
he  had  tossed  it  over  his  shoulder,  lay  the  journal  in 


126  THE   LENA   DELTA 

which  the  last  page  was  but  a  chronicle  of  death  after 
death. 

This  chapter  must  conclude  with  another  tragedy. 
In  1885  Dr.  Bunge  and  Baron  Toll  made  some  im- 
portant investigations  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Yana ;  and  next  year  Bunge  among  the 
fossils  of  Liakhoff  Island  found  not  only  mammoth 
and  rhinoceros,  but  horse,  musk-ox  and  deer,  and  two 
new  species  of  ox.  To  these  Toll,  after  discovering 
that  there  were  flourishing  trees  on  Kotelnoi  in  the 
time  of  the  mammoth — nearly  two  hundred  miles 
north  of  their  present  limit — added  frozen  carcases 
of  musk-ox  and  rhinoceros,  and  bones  of  antelope 
and  tiger. 

In  1902  Toll,  pushing  his  geological  researches 
further  north,  reached  Bennett  Island,  where  he 
collected  bones  of  the  mammoth  and  other  recent 
mammals,  while  the  main  mass  of  the  plateau  he 
identified  as  of  Cambrian  age.  These  discoveries  he 
included  in  the  record  announcing  his  intention  of 
leaving  for  Kotelnoi,  which  was  found  in  1904  by  the 
expedition  sent  to  his  relief,  for  he  was  never  seen 
alive  again. 


CHAPTER  VII 
BERING   STRAIT 

Native  stories  of  the  distant  continent — The  Russians  in  Kamchatka — 
Bering's  expedition — The  difficulties  of  his  task — Builds  a  vessel  and 
reaches  Kamchatka — Builds  another  vessel  and  discovers  the  strait  named 
after  him  by  Captain  Cook — His  second  expedition — Spangberg's  voyage 
to  Japan — Bering  reaches  the  American  coast — His  shipwreck  and  death 
— The  influence  of  the  sea-otter  and  the  fur-seal  on  geographical  dis- 
covery— The  Arctic  voyage  of  Captain  Cook — Clerke's  voyage — Beechey's 
voyage — Point  Barrow  reached  by  the  barge  of  the  Blossom — Kellett's 
voyage  in  the  Herald — Boat  expedition  to  Hudson  Bay — Kellett  reaches 
72°  51' — Landing  on  Herald  Island — Kellett  sights  Wrangell  Island — 
Berry  in  the  Rodgers  explores  Wrangell  Island — He  reaches  73°  44' — 
Frederick  Whymper  and  W.  H.  Dall  ascend  the  Yukon. 

T~)  UMOURS  of  land  over  against  the  far  corner  of 
JL \  Siberia  had  reached  the  Russians  for  years,  and 
many  were  the  legends  of  those  who  had  seen  these 
lands  from  the  cliffs,  or  had  been  on  the  ice  to  look  at 
them  more  closely,  or  had  gone  away  to  them  and 
never  come  back.  There  was,  for  instance,  the  old 
legend  of  Kraechoj,  who  believed  he  had  found  safe 
shelter  at  Irkaipii  from  the  Chukche  vengeance,  but 
the  Chukche  made  his  way  into  the  stronghold  and 
killed  Kraechoj 's  son,  whereupon  Kraechoj  escaped  by 
letting  himself  down  with  thongs  to  the  boat  and  fled 
to  the  land  whose  mountains  can  be  seen  in  clear  sun- 
shine from  Cape  Yakan ;  and  there  he  was  among  his 
people  who  had  left  Asia  before  him. 

And  among  the  official  documents  was  the  statement 

127 


128  BERING   STRAIT 

made  by  the  Chukches  when  they  went  to  Anadyrskoi 
Ostrog  to  acknowledge  the  dominion  of  the  Russians, 
that  "  The  Noss  is  full  of  rocky  mountains,  and  the 
low  grounds  consist  of  land  covered  with  turf.  Oppo- 
site to  it  lies  an  island,  within  sight  of  it,  of  no  great 
extent,  and  void  of  wood.  It  is  inhabited  by  people 
who  have  the  same  aspect  as  the  Chukche,  but  are 
quite  a  different  nation,  and  speak  their  own  language, 
though  they  are  not  numerous.  It  is  half  a  day's 
voyage  with  boats  from  the  Noss  to  the  island.  There 
are  no  sables  on  the  island,  and  no  other  animals  but 
foxes,  wolves,  and  reindeer.  Beyond  the  island  is  a 
large  continent  that  can  be  scarcely  discerned  from  it, 
and  that  only  on  clear  days ;  in  calm  weather  one  may 
row  over  the  sea  from  the  island  to  the  continent, 
which  is  inhabited  by  a  people  who  in  every  particular 
resemble  the  Chukches.  There  are  large  forests  of  fir, 
pine,  larch,  and  cedar  trees  ;  great  rivers  flow  through 
the  country  and  fall  into  the  sea.  The  inhabitants  have 
dwellings  and  fortified  places  of  abode  environed  with 
ramparts  of  earth ;  they  live  upon  wild  reindeer  and 
fish ;  their  clothes  are  made  of  sable,  fox,  and  reindeer 
skins,  for  sables  and  foxes  are  there  in  great  abundance. 
The  number  of  men  in  that  country  may  be  twice  or 
three  times  as  many  as  that  of  the  Chukches  who  are 
often  at  war  with  them."  That  there  was  land  in  sight 
somewhere  seemed  clear,  but  the  reports  differed  in 
placing  it  all  the  way  round  from  the  north  to  the  east. 
Many  were  the  vain  attempts  to  reach  it  from  the 
northward-flowing  rivers,  and  it  was  left  to  be  f^und 
from  the  Pacific  side. 

When  Atlassof,  in  1697,  took  the  first  steps  in  the 


BERING    STRAIT 


100  0  100  200  300  400  50O 


To  face  page  128 


THE  CONQUEST  OF  KAMCHATKA  129 

conquest  of  Kamchatka  the  Russians  were  already 
known  to  the  inhabitants.  Long  before  him  Fedotof 
and  a  few  comrades  had  made  their  way  into  the 
country  and  intermarried  with  native  women.  They 
had  been  held  in  great  honour  and  almost  deified  as 
being  evidently  of  a  superior  race.  For  some  time  it 
was  supposed  that  no  human  hand  could  hurt  them, 
but  this  belief  was  rudely  shattered  when  two  of  the 
demigods  quarrelled  and  fought,  and  one  wounding  the 
other,  the  blood  flowed.  That  flow  of  blood  was  fatal, 
for  the  natives,  judging  that  they  were  but  ordinary 
flesh,  took  an  early  opportunity  of  wiping  them  out,  the 
name  of  their  leader  being  still  traceable  in  that  of  the 
Fedotcha  River  on  the  banks  of  which  they  had  lived. 
The  Kamchadales  had  other  tales  to  tell  of  visitors 
from  the  east  and  south,  and  Atlassof  himself  dis- 
covered on  the  River  Itcha  a  Japanese  who  had  been 
wrecked  on  the  coast  two  years  before,  from  whom  he 
learnt  of  islands  innumerable.  But  there  were  no 
ships  on  the  Pacific  coast  of  Siberia,  and  nothing  in 
the  way  of  discovery  could  be  done  until  1714,  when 
there  arrived  at  Ochotsk  a  detachment  of  sailors  and 
shipwrights  despatched  thither  overland.  According 
to  one  of  the  sailors,  Henry  Bush,  a  Dutchman,  the 
carpenters  built  a  good  durable  vessel  some  fifty  feet 
long  which  was  ready  for  sea  in  1716  when  the  first 
voyage  was  undertaken.  The  coast  of  Kamchatka  was 
made  near  the  River  Itcha,  and  sailing  south  they 
reached  the  Kompakova,  where  they  wintered  and 
found  the  whale  that  had  in  its  body  the  harpoon  of 
European  workmanship  marked  with  Roman  letters, 
mentioned  by  Scoresby.  Bush  returned  to  Ochotsk  in 


130  BERING   STRAIT 

July,  to  be  sent  in  the  following  year  to  discover  the 
Shantar  Islands,  and  next  year,  1718,  the  Kuriles;  thus 
venturing  into  the  Pacific  beyond  Cape  Lopatka. 

The  last  of  these  expeditions  was  due  to  the  direct 
order  of  Peter  the  Great,  who,  knowing  nothing  of 
Deschnef,  and  finding  the  sea  open  to  the  north,  re- 
solved on  a  voyage  in  that  direction,  his  holograph  in- 
structions to  Admiral  Apraxin  being:  "  One  or  two  boats 
with  decks  to  be  built  at  Kamchatka,  or  at  any  other 
convenient  place,  with  which  inquiry  should  be  made 
relative  to  the  northerly  coasts,  to  see  whether  they 
are  not  contiguous  with  America,  since  their  termina- 
tion is  not  yet  known."  Peter  died,  and  the  Empress 
Catherine,  carrying  out  these  instructions  in  their 
fullest  meaning,  began  her  reign  with  an  order  for  the 
expedition. 

Veit  Bering,  Dane  by  birth  and  sailor  by  trade,  had 
voyaged  to  the  Indies,  east  and  west,  and,  like  many 
other  men  of  enterprise,  had  entered  the  Russian 
service  at  Peter's  invitation.  He  had  served  with 
distinction  in  the  Cronstadt  fleet  in  the  war  against 
the  Swedes,  and,  being  in  good  repute  for  his  know- 
ledge of  ships  and  their  handling,  was  appointed  to  the 
command  of  the  most  remarkable  Arctic  enterprise  on 
record.  Just  as  Nicholas  ruled  a  line  and  ordered  a 
railway  to  be  built  there,  so  did  Catherine  in  the  same 
imperial  way  order  an  exploring  expedition,  and  it 
was  done.  But  it  meant  building  the  ship  from  the 
trees  of  the  forest  on  the  coast  of  the  Pacific  and 
carrying  the  materials  and  stores— everything  but  the 
timber — right  across  the  Russian  empire  in  the  days 
when  for  thousands  of  miles  there  were  not  even  roads. 


THE   FACE   OF  THE   FUR   SEAL 


To  face  page  130 


BERING'S  JOURNEY   TO   OCHOTSK  131 

Bering's  lieutenants  were  Martin  Spangberg  and 
Alexei  Tschirikof.  With  them  and  the  rest  of  the 
expedition  he  left  St.  Petersburg  on  the  5th  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1725.  During  that  year  they  got  as  far  as  the 
Him,  where  they  wintered.  In  the  spring  of  1726 
they  sailed  down  the  Lena  to  Yakutsk,  where  they 
parted  company  for  a  time  owing  to  the  difficulties  of 
the  route  to  Ochotsk,  the  way  not  being  passable  in 
summer  with  wagons,  or  in  winter  with  sledges,  on 
account  of  the  marshes  and  rocky  ground.  So  Spang- 
berg set  out,  working  along  the  rivers  Aldan,  Maia, 
and  Judoma,  with  part  of  the  provisions  and  heavy 
naval  stores,  while  Bering  followed  overland  through 
uninhabited  country  with  more  stores  on  horses,  and 
Tschirikof  remained  to  collect  still  more  and  follow  in 
the  track  of  his  commander. 

Bering  reached  Ochotsk  first.  Spangberg  was  frozen 
up  in  the  Judoma,  and  thence  he  walked  to  Ochotsk 
with  the  most  necessary  materials ;  but  he  suffered  so 
much  from  hunger  on  the  way  that  he  had  to  support 
life  by  eating  leather  bags,  straps,  and  shoes,  and  did 
not  reach  Bering  till  the  1st  of  January,  1727,  nearly 
two  years  after  leaving  St.  Petersburg.  In  the  begin- 
ning of  February  he  returned  to  the  Judoma  and 
brought  away  about  half  of  his  lading,  the  other  half 
being  left  for  a  third  journey,  which  he  made  from 
and  to  Ochotsk  on  horses.  Meanwhile  Tschirikof  was 
toiling  along  from  Yakutsk,  and  did  not  arrive  to 
complete  the  party  until  the  30th  of  July. 

On  arrival  Bering  had  to  build  a  vessel  to  take  his 
most  necessary  naval  stores  and  his  shipbuilders  across 
the  sea  of  Ochotsk  to  Bolscheretzkoi,  which,  in  her,  he 


132  BERING   STRAIT 

reached  on  the  2nd  of  September.  From  here  he 
followed  the  shipwrights,  who  went  on  ahead  to  fell  the 
trees,  taking  with  them  the  provisions  and  stores,  over 
the  backbone  of  the  isthmus  and  down  the  Kamchatka 
River  to  the  mouth,  a  distance  of  some  two  hundred 
miles,  the  journey  being  very  slow  on  account  of  the 
travelling  being  by  dog-sledge.  In  short,  it  was 
not  until  the  4th  of  April,  1728,  that  is,  more  than 
three  years  after  leaving  St.  Petersburg,  that  it  was 
possible  to  put  on  the  stocks  the  vessel  in  which  the 
voyage  to  the  north  was  to  be  made.  But  she  took 
only  three  months  to  build,  being  launched  on  the 
10th  of  July,  when  she  was  named  the  Gabriel. 

Laden  with  stores  for  forty  men  during  a  year's 
voyage,  she  put  to  sea  ten  days  afterwards,  Bering 
keeping  close  to  the  coast  so  that  he  could  map  it  as  he 
went.  On  the  10th  of  August  he  was  off  the  island  of 
St.  Lawrence,  which  he  so  named,  as  it  was  the  day  of 
that  saint.  In  a  day  or  two  he  had  passed  the  East 
Cape  without  seeing  the  American  coast,  and  had 
entered  the  Arctic  Circle.  And  on  the  15th  he  was 
well  through  the  strait,  out  in  the  Arctic  Ocean,  in 
67°  18'  off  Serdze  Kamen,  a  promontory  behind  which 
the  coast  trended  to  the  west,  as  the  Chukches  had  told 
him  it  did ;  and  he  assumed,  and  rightly  so,  though  he 
had  not  gone  far  enough  to  prove  it,  that  there  was 
no  land  connection  between  Asia  and  America.  Where- 
upon, as  he  had  in  his  opinion  accomplished  his  mission, 
seeing  no  need  for  wintering  in  those  parts,  he  put 
the  Gabriel  about  and  was  back  in  the  Kamchatka 
River  on  the  20th  of  September,  after  a  voyage  of  seven 
weeks  in  a  vessel  that  took  three  months  to  build  on  a 


THE  ALEUTIAN    ISLANDS 


To  face  page  132 


SPANGBERG'S  VOYAGE  TO  JAPAN  133 

spot  that  took  over  three  years  to  reach — the  plan  of 
campaign  being  much  the  same  as  that  in  which  a 
mountain  stronghold  is  advanced  on  across  a  desert, 
besieged  for  a  few  days,  and  captured  by  assault. 

After  wintering,  Bering  went  off  next  year  on  a 
voyage  due  east  in  search  of  reported  land,  but,  after 
some  hundred  and  thirty  miles  out,  he  was  blown  back, 
and,  rounding  the  south  end  of  Kamchatka,  put  in  at 
the  River  Bolschaia;  thence  he  crossed  to  Ochotsk, 
whence  he  started  for  St.  Petersburg,  where  he  arrived 
after  an  absence  of  five  years.  Catherine  was  dead  and 
another  empress  reigned  in  her  stead,  who  was  pleased 
and  satisfied  if  no  one  else  was,  and  the  21st  of  Feb- 
ruary, 1733,  saw  him  starting  again  in  the  same 
laborious  fashion  to  arrange  other  voyages  as  part  of  a 
great  scheme  for  the  exploration  of  Northern  and  North- 
eastern Asia.  Some  of  these  expeditions  on  the  north 
coast  have  already  been  mentioned  ;  Bering's  particular 
task  was  to  send  Spangberg  in  search  of  Japan,  while 
he  and  Tschirikof,  in  separate  ships,  went  eastward  to 
America.  More  stores  and  provisions  went  overland 
across  Siberia  than  before  ;  Spangberg  got  again  frozen 
up  on  the  Judoma  and  had  to  continue  on  foot  to 
Ochotsk,  where  he  found  plenty  of  food  owing  to 
Bering  having  sent  on  ahead,  in  case  of  any  such 
trouble,  a  hundred  horses,  each  of  them  laden  with 
meal.  In  June,  1738,  Spangberg,  in  two  newly-built 
vessels  and  the  Gabriel,  was  off  to  Japan,  to  reach  the 
Kuriles  and  return  to  winter  in  Kamchatka ;  but  next 
year  he  arrived  there  all  well  and  found  to  his  astonish- 
ment that  the  Japanese  knew  as  much  about  maps  as 
he  did.  He  was  still  more  astonished  on  his  return  to 


134  BERING   STRAIT 

be  told  by  those  high  in  office  at  St.  Petersburg  that  he 
could  not  possibly  have  been  there  as  they  had  not  got 
it  on  their  maps  where  he  said  it  was,  and,  consequently, 
he  was  to  go  where  he  had  been  as  soon  as  he  could  to 
make  sure.  He  started  on  this  voyage  of  verification, 
but  circumstances  were  against  him  and  he  did  not 
reach  there ;  and  his  Japanese  trip  remained  discredited 
until  the  Russian  geographers  knew  better.  His  voyage 
thither  had,  however,  used  such  a  stock  of  provisions 
that  it  was  two  years  before  the  deficiency  could  be 
made  up,  and  it  was  actually  the  4th  of  September, 
1740,  seven  and  a  half  years  after  leaving  St.  Peters- 
burg, when  Bering,  in  the  specially-built  St.  Peter,  and 
Tschirikof,  in  her  sister  the  St.  Paul,  got  off  outward 
bound  to  America. 

In  about  three  weeks  they  were  at  Awatcha  Bay  on 
the  east  of  Kamchatka,  anchored  in  the  fine  harbour 
named  Petropaulovsk  after  the  two  ships,  and  here 
they  had  to  stay  for  the  winter,  so  that  they  did  not 
leave  Russian  territory  until  the  4th  of  the  following 
June.  A  few  days  out  the  ships  were  separated  in  a 
fog  and  storm,  and  the  St.  Paul  reached  the  American 
coast  first,  at  Kruzof  Island  on  the  western  shore  of 
Sitka  Sound.  The  St.  Peter  three  days  afterwards,  on 
the  18th  of  July,  drifted  to  the  coast  more  to  the 
northward,  at  Cape  St.  Elias  near  the  mighty  moun- 
tain of  that  name.  In  this  neighbourhood  amid  much 
fog  Bering  stayed  six  weeks  until  he  was  blown  out  to 
sea,  when,  his  men  beginning  to  die  from  scurvy,  he 
resolved  to  return  to  Kamchatka.  It  was  a  voyage  of 
misfortune  in  a  continual  downfall,  the  men  in  want, 
misery,  and  sickness,  continuously  at  work  in  the  cold 


THE  SEA-OTTER  AND  THE  FUR-SEAL  135 
and  wet,  becoming  fewer  and  fewer,  so  that  there  were 
not  enough  to  work  the  ship  properly.  It  ended  on 
one  of  the  Commander  Islands  by  the  vessel  being 
lifted  by  the  sea  clear  over  a  reef  into  calm  water. 
Bering  died — the  island  is  named  after  him — and  the 
survivors  of  the  crew,  building  a  boat  from  the  materials 
of  the  St.  Peter,  arrived  at  Petropaulovsk  on  the  27th 
of  August,  bringing  with  them  a  quantity  of  sea-otter 
skins,  which  did  more  for  discovery  in  those  seas  than 
any  imperial  expedition. 

As  the  sable  had  brought  about  the  conquest  of 
Siberia,  so  did  the  sea-otter  lead  to  the  seizure  of  the 
islands  of  the  Bering  Sea  and  the  coasts  of  Alaska. 
Three  years  after  the  return  of  the  survivors  of  the 
St.  Peter,  Nevodtsikof  wintered  on  one  of  the  Aleutian 
Islands,  and  in  a  few  years  the  fur-hunters  were  at 
their  exterminating  work  over  the  whole  chain.  In 
time  the  fur-seal  attracted  as  much  attention,  and,  with 
Pribylov's  discovery,  in  1786,  of  its  rookeries  on  the 
islands  named  after  him,  the  trade  became  of  such 
increasing  importance  as  to  endanger  in  our  time  the 
peace  of  the  world.  Every  one  has  heard  of  the  wonder- 
ful haunts  and  habits  of  that  strange  eared  seal  which 
seems  to  have  come  from  the  south  through  the  tropics 
to  breed  in  the  coldest  limit  of  its  range,  now  almost 
entirely  on  the  Pribylovs  and  the  Commanders ;  how 
it  is  pursued  in  skin  boats  and  every  sort  of  craft,  and 
scared  in  long  lines  to  slaughter  by  clapping  of  boards 
and  bones  and  waving  of  flags  and  opening  and  shut- 
ting of  gingham  umbrellas,  until  it  promises  to  become 
as  extinct  as  Steller's  sea-cow  or  as  rare  as  the  sea- 
otter. 


136  BERING  STRAIT 

Following  Bering  on  the  way  to  the  north  came 
Captain  James  Cook,  in  H.M.S.  Resolution,  who  gave 
Bering's  name  to  the  strait.  Cook  sighted  Mount 
St.  Elias  in  May,  1778,  and,  cruising  slowly  along  the 
coast  with  many  discoveries  and  much  accurate  survey- 
ing, was  off,  and  named,  Cape  Prince  of  Wales,  the 
western  extremity  of  America,  on  the  9th  of  August. 
He  then  crossed  the  strait  and  plied  back  until  on 
the  18th  he  sighted  and  named  Icy  Cape  in  70°  29'. 
Close  to  the  edge  of  the  ice,  which  was  as  compact  as 
a  wall,  and  seemed  to  be  ten  or  twelve  feet  high  at  the 
least,  he  sought  persistently  for  a  passage  through,  but 
none  was  to  be  found  ;  and  after  reaching  70°  6'  in 
196°  42'  (163°  18'  W.)  on  the  19th,  he  turned  westward 
to  the  Asiatic  coast,  along  which  he  went  until  he 
sighted  and  named  Cape  North,  as  already  stated. 
Then,  blocked  by  ice,  east,  north,  and  west,  he  re- 
turned, passing  Cape  Serdze  Kamen  (Bering's  farthest) 
and  naming  East  Cape,  confirming  Bering's  observation 
that  it  was  the  most  easterly  point  of  Asia. 

On  Cook's  death  at  Hawaii  Captain  Charles  Clerke, 
of  the  accompanying  vessel  H.M.S.  Discovery,  took 
command  of  the  expedition  and  carried  out  Cook's 
intention  of  making  another  effort  during  the  follow- 
ing year.  The  ice  conditions  were,  however,  worse. 
The  two  ships  found  the  ice  block  further  south,  and 
as  impenetrable  as  before,  and  Clerke's  highest  was 
70°  33'  on  the  American  side,  on  the  19th  of  July. 
As  it  was  Cook's  last  voyage,  so  it  was  Clerke's.  He 
was  in  a  bad  way  with  consumption,  and  continued  his 
work  in  the  north,  though,  under  the  special  circum- 
stances and  being  in  command,  he  could  at  any  time 


BEECHEY'S   VOYAGE  137 

have  given  up  the  obviously  hopeless  attempt  and  left 
for  a  more  genial  climate,  in  which  he  would  at  least 
have  had  a  chance  of  longer  life ;  but,  remaining  at 
his  duty,  he  died  at  sea  on  the  22nd  of  August,  and 
was  buried  at  Petropaulovsk. 

Captain  Beechey,  in  H.M.S.  JBlossom,  passed  through 
the  strait  in  1826  when  sent  north  from  the  Pacific 
with  a  view  of  meeting  with  his  old  commander, 
Franklin,  then  on  his  second  land  journey.  Beechey 
took  the  ship  to  Icy  Cape,  whence  on  the  17th  of 
August  he  despatched  the  barge  under  the  master, 
Thomas  Elson,  to  survey  the  coast  to  the  north-east- 
ward as  far  as  he  could  go  in  three  weeks,  there  and 
back.  Elson  reached  his  farthest  on  the  25th  at  a  spit 
of  land  jutting  out  several  miles  from  the  more  regular 
coast-line,  the  width  of  the  neck  not  exceeding  a  mile 
and  a  half,  broadest  at  its  extremity,  with  several 
frozen  lakes  on  it,  and  a  village,  whose  natives  proved 
so  troublesome  that  it  was  thought  unsafe  to  land. 
This  was  Point  Barrow,  in  71°  23'  31",  longitude 
156°  21'  30",  the  northernmost  land  on  the  western 
half  of  the  American  continent.  To  the  eastward 
curved  a  wide  bay — named  Elson  Bay  by  Beechey — 
the  shore-line  of  which  joined  on  to  the  ice  pack  that 
encircled  the  horizon.  Here  he  was  within  a  hundred 
and  sixty  miles  of  where  Franklin  had  turned  back  a 
week  before.  Though  Beechey  did  not  meet  Franklin 
he  did  most  useful  work  in  these  parts,  for  by  him  the 
whole  coast  was  surveyed  between  Point  Barrow  and 
Point  Rodney,  to  the  south  of  Prince  of  Wales  Cape. 

Franklin  was  also  the  cause  of  the  appearance  of 
the  next  British  expedition  in  the  strait.     This  was  in 


138  BERING   STRAIT 

1848,  Captain  Henry  Kellett,  in  H.M.S.  Herald,  with 
Commander  Thomas  Moore  in  H.M.S.  Plover,  forming 
the  western  detachment  of  the  first  series  of  search 
expeditions.  There  were  three  detachments,  one  to 
follow  the  Erebus  and  Terror  from  the  eastward, 
another  under  John  Richardson  to  descend  the  Mac- 
kenzie and  search  the  northern  coast,  the  other  coming 
in  from  the  west  to  meet  the  ships  should  they  have 
made  the  passage.  On  this  duty  the  Herald  and 
Plover  were  hereabouts  for  three  seasons,  the  Plover 
wintering,  the  Herald  going  south  when  the  naviga- 
tion closed. 

In  October,  1826,  Beechey  had  buried  a  barrel  of 
flour  for  Franklin  on  the  sandy  point  of  Chamisso 
Island,  ample  directions  for  finding  it  being  cut  and 
painted  on  the  rock,  and  to  call  the  attention  of  the 
party  to  the  spot  the  name  of  the  Blossom  was  painted 
on  the  cliffs  of  Puffin  Island.  When  the  Herald  was 
at  Chamisso  Island  in  1849  Captain  Kellett  searched 
for  this  flour  and  found  it.  A  considerable  space  was 
cleared  round  the  cask,  its  chimbs  were  freed,  and,  only 
adhering  to  the  sand  by  the  two  lower  bilge  staves,  it 
required  the  united  strength  of  two  boats'  crews,  with 
a  parbuckle  and  a  large  spar  as  a  lever,  to  free  it 
altogether.  The  sand  was  frozen  so  hard  that  it 
emitted  sparks  with  every  blow  of  the  pickaxe.  The 
cask  itself  was  perfectly  sound  and  the  hoops  good, 
and  out  of  the  336  Ib.  of  flour  which  it  contained, 
175  Ib.  were  as  sweet  and  well  tasted  as  any  he  had 
with  him ;  so  good  indeed  was  it  that  Captain  Kellett 
gave  a  dinner  party,  at  which  all  the  pies  and  puddings 
were  made  of  this  flour. 


THE    PARKA    OF    THE    ALASKAN    INNUITS 
(THE  SHORTER  COAT  is  THAT  WORN  BY  THE  MEN) 


To  face  page  138 


KELLETT'S  VOYAGE  139 

After  the  dinner  party,  on  the  18th  of  July,  the  two 
vessels  started  for  the  north,  being  joined  as  soon  as 
they  stood  from  the  anchorage  by  Robert  Shedden  in 
his  yacht  the  Nancy  JDawson,  who  at  his  own  initiative 
had  come  up  from  Hong  Kong  to  join  in  the  search. 
From  Wainwright  Inlet  Kellett  sent  off  the  boats 
under  Lieutenant  Pullen,  two  of  which  made  the 
journey  along  the  northern  coast  and  up  the  Mac- 
kenzie, their  crews  thence  making  their  way  home  east- 
wards to  York  Factory. 

When  Kellett  was  about  to  commence  his  observa- 
tions at  the  inlet  he  drew  a  semicircle  on  the  sand  from 
water's  edge  to  water's  edge,  and  placed  the  boats' 
noses  between  its  points.  The  natives  seemed  to 
understand  the  meaning  of  this  line.  Not  one  of  them 
attempted  to  overstep  it,  and  they  squatted  down  and 
remained  perfectly  quiet  and  silent.  When  a  stranger 
arrived  they  shouted  to  him,  and  he  no  sooner  com- 
prehended the  directions  than  he  crept  rather  than 
walked  to  the  boundary,  and  squatted  among  the  rest. 
Afterwards  they  danced  and  sang  and  played  football 
with  the  seamen — who  stood  no  chance  with  them  at 
that  game — and  when  they  had  gone  off,  after  all  this 
good  behaviour,  it  was  discovered  that  they  had  been 
picking  the  pockets  of  some  of  the  party,  one  losing  a 
handkerchief,  another  a  glove,  and  Commander  Moore 
a  box  of  percussion  caps. 

The  boat  party  had  a  similar  experience,  without  the 
pocket-picking.  Reaching  Point  Barrow  they  landed 
to  make  observations  and  look  about  for  traces  of  the 
visit  of  the  Blossom's  boat,  which  they  did  not  find. 
Their  interpreter  did  not  understand  the  tribe,  and 


140  BERING   STRAIT 

recourse  was  had  to  the  universal  language  of  signs. 
"  We  made  a  rude  model  of  a  vessel,"  says  Lieutenant 
Hooper,  "  and  performed  sundry  antics  to  signify  what 
we  were  in  search  of,  but  could  elicit  no  information, 
and  so  set  to  work  at  obtaining  observations.  We  con- 
cluded that  these  people  must  have  been  entirely  mis- 
understood. Far  from  evidencing  any  disposition  to 
assail  or  molest  us,  they  were  most  docile  and  well- 
behaved,  agreeably  disappointing  us  in  their  conduct. 
When  we  arrived  on  the  hillock,  all,  big  and  little,  sat 
down  around  us,  and  I  amused  myself  by  filling  their 
pipes,  becoming  a  great  favourite  immediately  in  conse- 
quence. They  had  among  them  a  great  many  knives, 
which  we  feared  would  influence  the  magnet.  Mr. 
Pullen  therefore  kindly  drew  off  the  crowd  to  a  dis- 
tance, distributing  among  them  tobacco,  beads,  snuff, 
etc.,  and  much  to  their  credit  be  it  said,  there  was 
neither  confusion  nor  contention,  each  taking  his 
allotted  portion,  and  seeming  delighted  with  his  good 
fortune.  They  took  care  not  to  come  near  the  instru- 
ments, finding  that  we  did  not  like  their  approach ;  one 
or  two  indeed  came  towards  us,  but  retired  instantly 
when  laughingly  motioned  back,  and  this  should  be 
considered  as  a  display  of  great  forbearance,  inasmuch 
as  their  curiosity  must  have  been  highly  excited. 
When  the  observations  were  concluded  they  were 
allowed  to  inspect  the  objects  of  their  wonder;  then 
fast  and  thickly  to  utterance  flew  their  expressions  of 
astonishment  at  the — to  them — novel  and  splendid 
instruments.  The  trough  of  quicksilver,  liquid  and 
restless,  especially  attracted  them,  pleasure  and  wonder 
were  evident  at  the  simple  view,  but  when  one  or  two 


BERRY'S   VOYAGE  141 

had  permission  to  take  some  from  the  dish,  and  found 
it  ever  elude  the  grasp,  their  astonishment  knew  no 
bounds." 

From  Wainwright  Inlet,  which  is  between  Icy  Cape 
and  Point  Barrow,  the  Herald  sailed  along  the  pack  to 
the  westward,  reaching  her  highest  north,  72°  51',  in 
163°  48',  and,  on  the  17th  of  August,  Kellett  landed 
on  and  named  Herald  Island  in  71°  17'  45",  a  mass  of 
granite  towering  nine  hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  under 
five  miles  long  and  three  broad,  inhabited  mainly  by 
black  and  white  divers  and  yielding  the  collector  only 
four  flowering  plants.  Further  to  the  west  he  sighted 
Wrangell  Island,  sailed  past  and  named  by  the  Ameri- 
can whaling  captain,  Thomas  Long,  in  August,  1867. 

In  1881  Wrangell  Island  was  thoroughly  explored 
by  another  search  expedition,  that  of  Captain  Berry  in 
the  American  ship  Rodgers,  who  was  in  these  parts 
looking  out  for  traces  of  the  Jeannette.  He  found  it 
to  be,  not  a  continent  as  some  had  supposed,  but  an 
island  forty  miles  broad  and  sixty-six  miles  long,  about 
thirty  miles  from  Herald  Island  and  eighty  from  the 
Siberian  coast;  and  on  it,  as  on  all  these  Siberian 
islands  and  the  coast  of  Alaska,  remains  of  the  mam- 
moth were  found.  Examining  the  ice  to  the  north- 
ward, he  reached  73°  44'  in  171°  30',  being  fifty-three 
miles  further  north  than  Kellett  and  twenty-four  miles 
further  than  Collinson  in  1850.  Returning  from  the 
north  to  winter  quarters  he  achieved  another  Arctic 
record  in  his  ship  being  destroyed  by  fire  in  St.  Law- 
rence Bay  on  the  Asiatic  side  of  Bering  Strait. 

Opposite  this,  on  the  American  side,  from  Cape 
York  downwards  the  land  trends  away  to  the  south- 


142  BERING   STRAIT 

east  to  Norton  Sound,  in  which  are  the  mouths  of  the 
Yukon,  one  of  the  mightiest  rivers  of  the  world,  its 
volume  being  as  great  as,  or  according  to  some  writers 
greater  than,  the  Mississippi.  In  a  course  of  two  thou- 
sand miles  it  runs  northwards  to  the  Arctic  Circle  at 
the  now  abandoned  trading  post  of  Fort  Yukon,  where 
its  waters  are  reinforced  by  its  tributary,  the  Rat  or 
Porcupine,  coming  in  from  the  north-east,  and  given 
their  seaward  direction  to  the  south-west.  Up  this 
vast  waterway  in  1866  went  Frederick  Whymper  and 
William  H.  Ball. 

Beginning  with  a  sledge  journey  of  a  hundred  and 
seventy  miles  from  Unalachleet,  they  struck  the  Yukon 
on  the  10th  of  November,  gliding  down  a  high  steep 
bank  on  to  it.  Hardly  a  patch  of  clear  ice  was  to  be 
seen,  the  snow  covering  the  whole  extent.  Accumula- 
tions of  hummocks  had  in  many  places  been  forced  on 
the  surface  before  the  river  had  become  thoroughly 
frozen,  and  the  water  was  still  open,  running  swiftly  in 
a  few  isolated  streaks.  From  bank  to  bank  was  not  less 
than  a  mile,  the  stream  flowing  among  several  islands. 
As  they  sledged  up  the  river  the  dreary  expanse  of 
snow  made  them  almost  forget  they  were  on  a  sheet  of 
ice ;  and,  as  it  winds  considerably,  their  course  was 
often  from  bank  to  bank  to  cut  off  corners  and  bends. 
Many  cliffs  abutted  on  the  stream,  and  islands  of 
sombre  green  forest  studded  it  in  all  directions. 

On  the  15th  they  reached  Nulato,  six  hundred  miles 
from  the  mouth,  where  they  spent  the  winter.  Here 
they  found  a  curious  method  of  fishing  practised  all 
through  the  season.  Early  in  the  winter  large  piles  or 
stakes  had  been  driven  down  into  the  bed  of  the  river, 


UP  THE   YUKON  143 

and  to  these  were  affixed  wickerwork  traps  like  eel-pots 
on  a  large  scale,  oblong  holes  being  kept  open  over 
them  by  frequently  breaking  the  ice.  This  was  cold 
work,  for  the  temperature  ran  low.  "  In  November 
and  December,"  says  Whymper,  "I  succeeded  in 
making  sketches  of  the  fort  and  neighbourhood  when 
the  temperature  was  as  low  as  thirty  degrees  below 
zero.  It  was  done,  it  need  not  be  said,  with  difficulty, 
and  often  by  instalments.  Between  every  five  strokes 
of  the  pencil,  I  ran  about  to  exercise  myself  or  went 
into  our  quarters  for  warmth.  The  use  of  water- 
colours  was  of  course  impracticable — except  when  I 
could  keep  a  pot  of  warm  water  on  a  small  fire  by  my 
side — a  thing  done  by  me  on  two  or  three  occasions, 
when  engaged  at  a  distance  from  the  post.  Even 
inside  the  house  the  spaces  near  the  windows,  as  well  as 
the  floor,  were  often  below  freezing  point.  Once,  for- 
getful of  the  fact,  I  mixed  some  colours  up  with  water 
that  had  just  stood  near  the  oven,  and  wetting  a  small 
brush  commenced  to  apply  it  to  my  drawing  block. 
Before  it  reached  the  paper  it  was  covered  with  a  skin 
of  ice,  and  simply  scratched  the  surface,  and  I  had  to 
give  up  for  the  time  being." 

On  the  12th  of  May  the  Nulato  River  broke  up  and 
ran  out  on  the  top  of  the  Yukon  ice  for  more  than  a 
mile  up-stream  ;  and  in  a  few  days  the  ice  of  the  main 
river  was  coming  down  in  a  steady  flow  at  a  rate  of 
five  or  six  knots,  surging  into  mountains  as  it  met 
with  obstacles,  and  grinding  and  crashing  and  carrying 
all  before  it,  whole  trees  and  banks  being  swept  away 
on  its  victorious  march,  the  water  rising  fourteen  feet 
above  the  winter  level.  On  the  26th  Whymper  and 


144  BERING   STRAIT 

Dall  started  with  two  Indians  and  a  steersman  in  a 
skin  canoe,  the  river  still  full  of  ice,  and  navigation 
difficult.  They  had  proceeded  but  a  short  distance 
when  they  came  to  bends,  round  which  logs  and  ice 
were  sweeping  at  a  great  rate,  so  that  it  was  necessary 
for  a  man  to  stand  in  the  bows  of  the  canoe,  with  a 
pole  shod  at  one  end  with  iron,  to  push  away  the  masses 
of  ice  and  tangle  of  driftwood.  They  could  often  feel 
the  ice  and  logs  rolling  and  scraping  under  the  canoe ; 
and  it  was  not  the  thickness  of  a  plank  between  them 
and  destruction,  but  that  of  a  piece  of  sealskin  a 
tenth  of  an  inch  thick. 

On  the  7th  of  June  they  were  two  hundred  and 
forty  miles  above  Nulato,  at  the  junction  of  the 
Tanana,  the  furthest  point  reached  by  the  Russians, 
and  soon  were  in  a  part  abounding  with  moose  owing 
to  their  seeking  refuge  in  the  stream  from  the  millions 
of  mosquitoes.  Here  the  Indian  hunters  were  busy, 
not  wasting  powder  and  shot,  but  manoeuvring  round 
the  swimming  deer  in  their  birch-bark  canoes  until  they 
tired  the  victim  out ;  and  then  stealthily  approaching, 
securing  it  with  a  stab  from  their  knives. 

After  twenty-six  laborious  days  against  the  stream 
they  reached  Fort  Yukon,  the  then  furthest  outpost 
of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  six  hundred  miles 
from  Nulato,  and,  of  course,  managed  and  victualled 
from  the  east.  Here  the  amount  of  peltry  was 
astonishing,  the  fur-room  of  the  fort  containing 
thousands  of  marten  skins,  hanging  from  the  beams, 
and  huge  piles  of  common  furs  lying  around,  together 
with  a  considerable  number  of  foxes,  black  and  silver- 
grey,  and  many  skins  of  the  wolverine,  thought  so 


FORT  YUKON  145 

much  more  of  by  the  Indians  than  by  any  one  else 
that  they  are  used  as  a  medium  of  exchange.  All 
these  furs  were  brought  in  from  the  surrounding 
districts,  far  and  near,  and  traded  for  goods,  as  widely 
distributed,  among  the  native  tribes  whose  repre- 
sentatives gathered  at  the  fort  in  such  a  miscellaneous 
crowd  that  perhaps  half  a  dozen  dialects  were  heard  in 
a  morning. 

In  the  crowd  the  busiest  and  most  prominent  were 
the  primitive  Tananas,  gay  with  feathers  and  painted 
faces,  looking  like  survivals  among  the  local  Kutchins 
and  the  Kutchins  of  the  upper  river,  the  Birch  River 
men,  and  the  Rat  River  men  by  whom  the  skins  were 
brought  from  the  natives  of  the  northern  coast,  as 
were  the  messages  from  the  Franklin  search  parties. 
Indians  were  all  of  these,  distinguishable  by  their 
wearing  the  hyaqua  or  tooth-shell  (Dentaliiim  entails} 
through  the  septum  of  the  nose,  while  the  Mahlemut 
wears  a  bone  on  each  side  of  the  mouth,  a  practice 
common  with  all  the  Innuit,  or  Eskimo  tribes,  from 
the  Aliaska  Peninsula  to  Point  Barrow,  unless  some 
other  form  of  labret  happens  to  be  the  local  fashion. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE   AMERICAN  MAINLAND 

The  Hudson's  Bay  Company — Samuel  Hearne  —  His  journey  down  the 
Coppermine  River — The  North  West  Fur  Company — Sir  Alexander 
Mackenzie — His  journey  down  the  Mackenzie— Sir  John  Franklin's  first 
land  journey — Fort  Enterprise — Back's  journey  to  Athabasca — The  rapids 
of  the  Coppermine — Point  Turnagaiu  reached — The  Wilberforce  Falls — 
The  terrible  crossing  of  the  Barren  Grounds — Franklin's  second  land 
journey — Richardson's  voyage  to  the  eastward — Discovers  Wollaston 
Land  and  Dolphin  and  Union  Strait — Franklin's  voyage  to  Return  Reef — 
Back's  journey  down  the  Great  Fish  River — Discovers  Montreal  Island 
and  King  William  Laud — The  Parry  Falls — Sir  George  Simpson — Peter 
Warren  Dease  and  Thomas  Simpson — Exploration  of  the  coast  between 
Return  Reef  and  Point  Barrow — Simpson  advances  beyond  Point  Turn- 
again  and  discovers  Victoria  Land  and  Dease  Strait — Their  second  voyage 
down  the  Coppermine — Discovery  of  Simpson  Strait — Reach  the  Great 
Fish  River — Their  farthest  east — Complete  the  survey  of  the  northern 
coast  between  Boothia  and  Bering  Strait — The  first  to  find  the  North-West 


FOR  two  elks  and  two  black  beavers,  paid  yearly 
whensoever  the  King  of  England  entered  their 
estate,  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  were,  in  1670, 
presented  by  Charles  II  with  the  northern  part  of  the 
American  mainland,  thus  ensuring  an  ample  stretch  of 
British  territory  along  the  passage  to  the  South  Sea. 
But  the  company  soon  ceased  to  be  interested  in  any 
such  passage,  finding  quite  enough  to  do  in  developing 
the  very  profitable  fur  trade  of  their  vast  possessions. 
With  the  exception  of  John  Knight's  disastrous  voyage 
to  Marble  Island  in  1719,  whatever  attempts  at  dis- 
coveries there  may  have  been  were  kept  quiet  for  fear 

146 


MAHLEMUT  MAN 


To  face  page  146 


HEARNE  AND  MACKENZIE  147 

of  aiding  their  rivals  the  French  to  the  south,  who 
were  fostering  the  trade  in  the  region  of  the  great 
lakes ;  and  not  until  the  French  dominion  ended  in 
1763  and  the  Frenchmen's  interests  were  passing  to 
an  opposition  British  company  was  any  effort  made  to 
explore  the  coast  of  the  Polar  Sea. 

Owing  to  Indian  reports  of  rich  deposits  of  native 
copper  and  an  abundance  of  fur-bearing  animals, 
Samuel  Hearne,  once  a  midshipman  in  the  Royal 
Navy,  was  sent  by  the  company  in  1769  to  explore 
to  the  west  and  north.  After  a  journey  of  thirteen 
hundred  miles  to  the  west  he  found  the  Coppermine 
River  and  the  Great  Slave  Lake,  and  he  traced  the 
river  to  its  mouth  and  emerged  on  the  northern  shore, 
being  the  first  known  white  man  to  see  the  Arctic 
Ocean  between  the  Boothia  Peninsula  and  Bering 
Strait.  Among  other  things  he  was  instructed  to  dis- 
cover a  north-west  passage,  and  he  certainly  did  some- 
thing definite  towards  it  by  showing  there  was  open 
water  so  much  further  west ;  but,  though  he  suspected 
it,  he  was  unable  to  prove  that  the  northernmost  point 
of  the  continent  was  in  the  unexplored  country  between 
the  Coppermine  and  Hudson  Bay. 

In  1783  the  North  West  Fur  Company  was  formally 
established,  and  after  a  severe  struggle  obtained,  owing 
mainly  to  the  efforts  of  Alexander  Mackenzie,  a  fair 
share  of  the  trade  in  the  west  of  the  region  controlled 
by  the  Hudson's  Bay  people.  Mackenzie  was  at  Fort 
Chippewyan,  on  Lake  Athabasca,  and  thence  he  was 
sent  in  1789  on  an  exploring  voyage  to  the  north.  In 
four  birch -bark  canoes,  one  of  his  party  being  an 
Indian  known  as  English  Chief,  who  had  been  with 


148  THE   AMERICAN   MAINLAND 

Hearne  on  his  journey  to  the  Coppermine,  he  started 
down  the  Great  Slave  River  into  the  Great  Slave 
Lake.  After  spending  twenty  days  in  crossing  and 
exploring  this  vast  sheet  of  water,  he  entered  the  large 
river  now  bearing  his  name,  and  down  it  amid  many 
dangers  and  difficulties,  overcome  by  skill,  persuasion, 
force,  good  humour  or  good  fortune,  he  reached  the 
sea  on  the  14th  of  July.  He  camped  on  Whale 
Island,  the  name  being  given  owing  to  one  of  the  men 
sighting  a  great  many  animals  in  the  water,  which  he 
at  first  supposed  to  be  pieces  of  ice.  "  However,"  says 
Mackenzie,  "  I  was  awakened  to  resolve  the  doubts 
which  had  taken  place  respecting  this  extraordinary 
appearance.  I  immediately  perceived  that  they  were 
whales ;  and  having  ordered  the  canoe  to  be  prepared, 
we  embarked  in  pursuit  of  them.  It  was  indeed  a 
very  wild  and  unreflecting  enterprise,  and  it  was  a  very 
fortunate  circumstance  that  we  failed  in  our  attempt 
to  overtake  them,  as  a  stroke  from  the  tail  of  one  of 
these  enormous  fish  would  have  dashed  the  canoe  to 
pieces.  We  may,  perhaps,  have  been  indebted  to  the 
foggy  weather  for  our  safety,  as  it  prevented  us  from 
continuing  our  pursuit.  Our  guide  informed  us  that 
they  are  the  same  kind  of  fish  which  are  the  principal 
food  of  the  Eskimos,  and  they  were  frequently  seen  as 
large  as  our  canoe.  The  part  of  them  which  appeared 
above  the  water  was  altogether  white,  and  they  were 
much  larger  than  the  largest  porpoise  " — being  evidently 
belugas  (Delphinapterus  leucas). 

Satisfied  with  a  short  canoe  voyage  on  the  sea,  he 
returned  to  the  river  and  made  his  way  back  to  the 
fort,  arriving  there  in  the  middle  of  September.  He 


FRANKLIN'S  FIRST  LAND   JOURNEY  149 

had  thus  proved  the  existence  of  the  sea  twenty 
degrees  further  west  than  Hearne  had  done.  Three 
years  afterwards  he  started  on  his  notable  journey  to 
the  Pacific  at  Cape  Menzies,  facing  Princess  Royal 
Island,  being  the  first  white  man  to  cross  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  and,  as  he  had  reached  Fort  Chippewyan 
by  way  of  Montreal,  the  first  to  cross  North  America 
above  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

Another  of  Hearne's  Indians  accompanied  Franklin 
on  his  first  land  journey  in  1819,  the  object  of  which 
was  to  explore  the  coast  between  Hearne's  farthest  and 
Hudson  Bay,  thus  filling  in  the  gap  in  which  the 
assumed  northern  promontory  was  to  be  found. 
Franklin,  who  was  sent  out  by  the  British  Govern- 
ment, had  with  him,  as  surgeon  and  naturalist,  Dr., 
afterwards  Sir,  John  Richardson,  to  whom  as  a  boy 
Robert  Burns  had  lent  Spenser's  Faerie  Queene,  a 
naval  surgeon  with  a  distinguished  record,  who  while 
on  half-pay  had  studied  botany  and  mineralogy  at 
Edinburgh.  Like  another  member  of  the  expedition, 
George  Back,  who  had  been  with  Franklin  in  the 
Trent  and  Dorothea  voyage,  he  was  destined  to  gain 
a  great  reputation  among  Arctic  explorers.  With 
Back  was  another  midshipman,  Robert  Hood,  whose 
fate  it  was  to  be  murdered  by  an  Iroquois  half-breed 
who,  through  want  of  food,  betook  himself  to  canni- 
balism. 

Landing  at  York  Factory,  in  Hudson  Bay,  after  an 
exciting  voyage,  on  the  30th  of  August,  Franklin, 
disregarding  local  advice,  pushed  on  across  the  continent 
during  the  winter,  arriving  at  Fort  Chippewyan  on  the 
26th  of  March,  the  losses  and  trying  experiences  of 


150  THE   AMERICAN   MAINLAND 

the  long  journey  being  mainly  due  to  the  rigours  of 
the  climate  at  that  time  of  year ;  and  thence,  in  July, 
the  party  followed  Mackenzie's  route  to  Fort  Provi- 
dence on  Great  Slave  Lake.  Here  they  were  joined 
by  Mr.  Wentzel,  of  the  North  West  Company. 

Starting  for  the  north  on  the  2nd  of  August  in  four 
canoes,  they  were  joined  next  day  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Yellow  Knife  by  a  band  of  Indians,  under  a  chief 
named  Akaitcho,  in  seventeen  canoes.  The  Indians 
were  to  guide  the  party  and  supply  them  with  food  by 
hunting  and  fishing  on  the  way,  but  game  and  fish 
proved  scarce — and  scarcer  owing  to  the  poorness  of 
the  Indian  marksmanship — provisions  were  short  and 
portages  long,  so  that  the  journey,  which  soon  led 
across  a  series  of  lakes,  was  pursued  under  toilsome 
and  hazardous  conditions  until  it  ended  at  Winter 
Lake  in  64°  30',  where  it  became  necessary  to  winter 
in  a  log  house  built  by  Wentzel,  and  named  Fort 
Enterprise.  The  site  was  delightful:  a  hillside  amid 
trees  three  feet  in  diameter  at  the  roots,  the  view  in 
front  bounded  at  a  distance  of  three  miles  by  round- 
backed  hills,  to  the  eastward  and  westward  the  Winter 
and  Roundrock  Lakes  connected  by  the  Winter  River, 
its  banks  clothed  with  pines  and  ornamented  with  a 
profusion  of  mosses,  lichens,  and  shrubs. 

In  a  few  weeks,  however,  the  weather  became  so 
severe  that,  according  to  Franklin,  the  trees  froze  to 
their  very  centres  and  became  as  hard  as  stones,  on 
which  some  of  the  axes  were  broken  daily,  until  but 
one  was  left.  And  though  at  first  the  reindeer  appeared 
in  numbers,  their  visits  lasted  only  for  a  short  time, 
and  the  party,  short  of  tobacco  for  the  Canadian 


BACK'S  JOURNEY  TO   FORT  CHIPPEWYAN     151 

voyageurs  and  of  ammunition  for  the  Indians,  had  so 
poor  an  outlook  that  it  became  necessary  to  accept 
Back's  proposal  to  return  to  the  forts  and  bring  on 
supplies  which  had  not  been  forwarded  as  promised ; 
the  failure  being  due  to  the  journey,  unlike  the 
successful  ventures  of  Hearne  and  Mackenzie,  being 
pushed  on  regardless  of  climatal  conditions,  and,  in 
some  degree,  to  the  rivalry  between  the  two  fur  com- 
panies which  were  amalgamated  while  the  expedition 
was  in  progress. 

Back  set  out  accompanied  by  Wentzel  and  two 
Canadians  and  two  Indians  and  their  wives,  crossing 
lakes  frozen  just  hard  enough  to  bear  them,  going  wide 
circuits  to  avoid  those  which  were  open,  amid  mist  and 
fog  and  storm,  over  rugged,  bare  country,  through 
dense  woods  and  snow-covered  swamps,  rafting  across 
a  river  with  pine  branches  for  paddles,  until  Fort 
Providence  was  reached.  From  here  he  sent  back 
Belanger  with  letters  and  a  hundred  bullets  he  pro- 
cured on  loan.  Belanger  arrived  at  Fort  Enterprise 
on  the  23rd  of  October  alone ;  he  had  walked  con- 
stantly for  the  last  six-and-thirty  hours  through  a 
storm,  his  locks  were  matted  with  snow,  and  he  was 
encrusted  with  ice  from  head  to  foot,  so  that  he  was 
scarcely  recognised  when  he  slipped  in  through  the 
doorway. 

At  Fort  Providence  Back  had  to  wait  until  the 
Great  Slave  Lake  was  frozen  over.  On  the  18th  of 
November  he  observed  two  mock  moons  at  equal 
distances  from  the  central  one,  the  whole  encircled  by 
a  halo,  the  colour  of  the  inner  edge  of  the  large  circle 
a  light  red  inclining  to  a  faint  purple ;  and  two  days 


152  THE   AMERICAN   MAINLAND 

afterwards  two  parhelia  were  observable,  with  a  halo, 
the  colours  of  the  inner  edge  of  the  circle  a  bright 
carmine  and  red-lake  intermingled  with  a  rich  yellow 
forming  a  purplish  orange,  the  outer  edge  being  a  pale 
gamboge.  On  the  7th  of  December  he  left,  sledging 
across  the  lake  before  the  wind,  for  the  North  West  fort 
on  Moose  Deer  Island,  and  finding  at  the  Hudson's 
Bay  fort,  also  on  the  island,  five  packages  of  belated 
supplies  and  two  Eskimo  interpreters  on  their  way  to 
Franklin. 

Here  he  was  told  that  nothing  could  be  spared  at 
Fort  Chippewyan,  that  goods  had  never  been  trans- 
ported so  far  in  the  winter  season,  that  the  same  dogs 
could  not  go  and  return,  and  that  from  having  to  walk 
constantly  on  snow-shoes  he  would  suffer  a  great  deal 
of  misery  and  fatigue.  Nevertheless  he  undertook  the 
journey  in  dog-sledges  with  a  Canadian  and  an  Indian, 
leaving  Wentzel  behind.  At  times  the  weather  was  so 
cold  that  they  had  to  run  to  keep  themselves  warm, 
and,  owing  to  the  snow,  the  feet  of  the  dogs  became  so 
raw  that  an  endeavour  was  made  to  fit  them  with 
shoes.  With  legs  and  ankles  so  swollen  that  it  was 
painful  to  drag  the  snow-shoes  after  him,  Back  hurried 
on,  reaching  Fort  Chippewyan  on  the  2nd  of  January 
to  find  that  he  and  all  Franklin's  party  had  been 
reported  to  have  been  killed  by  Eskimos.  Here  he  had 
to  wait  a  month,  and  then,  with  an  instalment  of  what 
he  wanted,  he  set  out  on  his  return,  arriving  at  Fort 
Enterprise  on  St.  Patrick's  Day  after  a  memorable 
journey  of  over  a  thousand  miles. 

During  his  absence  he  was  told  that  the  cold  had 
been  so  severe  that  Hood  had  found  accurate  observing 


THE   RAPIDS   OF  THE   COPPERMINE  153 

difficult  owing  to  the  sextant  having  changed  its  error 
and  the  glasses  lost  their  parallelism  from  the  contrac- 
tion of  the  brass,  a  circumstance,  combined  with  the 
crystallisation  of  the  mercury  of  the  artificial  horizon, 
that  might  account  for  some  of  the  diversity  of  results 
obtained  by  Arctic  navigators.  And  Richardson  had 
to  tell  him  of  an  early  discovery  that  when  fishing  and 
the  hands  get  cold  by  hauling  in  the  line,  the  best  way 
to  warm  them  is  to  put  them  in  the  water;  and  how  the 
fish  had  frozen  as  they  were  taken  out  of  the  water  so 
that  by  a  blow  or  two  of  the  hatchet  they  were  easily 
split  open,  leaving  the  intestines  removable  in  one  lump, 
and  yet  that  these  much -frozen  fish  retained  their 
vitality  so  that  he  had  seen  a  thawed  carp  recover  so 
far  as  to  leap  about  with  much  vigour  after  it  had  been 
frozen  for  thirty-six  hours. 

On  the  14th  of  June  Fort  Enterprise  was  left,  and 
on  the  25th  the  expedition  began  to  cross  Point  Lake 
on  the  way  to  the  Coppermine,  the  river  being  reached 
through  Rocknest  Lake  on  the  30th.  Down  the  river 
they  paddled,  taking  the  rapids  as  they  went — in  one 
place  three  miles  of  them  on  end.  "  We  were  carried 
along  with  extraordinary  rapidity,  shooting  over  large 
stones,  upon  which  a  single  stroke  would  have  been 
destructive  to  the  canoes ;  and  we  were  also  in  danger 
of  breaking  them,  from  the  want  of  the  long  poles 
which  lie  along  their  bottoms  and  equalise  their  cargoes, 
as  they  plunged  very  much,  and  on  one  occasion  the 
first  canoe  was  almost  filled  with  the  waves  ;  but  there 
was  no  receding  after  we  had  once  launched  into  the 
stream,  and  our  safety  depended  on  the  skill  and  dex- 
terity of  the  bowmen  and  steersmen." 


154  THE   AMERICAN   MAINLAND 

There  were  rapids  day  by  day  affording  almost  every 
possible  chance  of  wreck  except  that  due  to  driftwood ; 
the  two  worst  being  one  where  the  stream  descends  for 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  in  a  deep  but  narrow  and 
crooked  channel  which  it  has  cut  through  the  foot 
of  a  hill  of  five  hundred  or  six  hundred  feet  high, 
confined  between  perpendicular  cliffs  resembling  stone 
walls  varying  in  height  from  eighty  to  a  hundred  and 
fifty  feet,  on  which  lies  a  mass  of  fine  sand ;  the  body 
of  the  river  pent  within  this  narrow  chasm  dashing 
furiously  round  the  projecting  rocky  columns  as  it  dis- 
charges itself  at  the  northern  extremity  in  a  sheet  of 
foam.  The  other  being  where  the  river  flows  between 
lofty  stone  cliffs,  reddish  clay  rocks  and  shelving  banks 
of  white  clay,  and  is  full  of  shoals.  Franklin's  people 
had  entered  this  rapid  before  they  were  aware  of  it, 
and  the  steepness  of  the  cliffs  prevented  them  from 
landing,  so  that  they  owed  their  preservation  to  the  swift- 
ness of  their  descent.  Two  waves  made  a  complete 
breach  over  the  canoes ;  a  third  would  probably  have 
filled  and  overset  them,  which  would  have  proved  fatal 
to  all  on  board.  This  Escape  Rapid,  as  it  was  named, 
was,  as  it  were,  the  gate  into  the  territory  of  the  Eskimos 
who  were  soon  met  with  in  small  parties  all  the  way 
down  to  the  sea.  It  was  passed  on  the  15th  of  July ; 
three  days  afterwards  the  Indians  bade  farewell  to  the 
expedition  in  the  morning,  and  in  the  afternoon  the 
canoes  were  afloat  on  the  Arctic  Ocean. 

From  the  river  mouth  Wentzel  returned,  as  arranged, 
with  despatches,  taking  with  him  a  number  of  voyageurs 
and  others,  thus  reducing  the  party  to  twenty  in  all  in 
two  canoes.  In  these  Franklin,  nearly  two  years  after 


\ 


KUTCHIN    INDIANS 


To  face  page  154 


THE   WILBERFORCE   FALLS  155 

he  had  landed  in  America,  went  on  his  voyage  to  the 
eastward  to  enter  at  last  on  the  work  he  had  been  sent 
to  do.  But  the  survey  of  this  lofty  rocky  coast  was  no 
easy  matter  ;  the  sea  was  rough,  the  weather  tempestu- 
ous, the  canoes  were  lightly  built  and  only  suited  for 
river  work,  and,  in  short,  it  was  a  most  risky  enterprise. 
Tracing  the  shore  of  Coronation  Gulf  and  coasting  up 
and  out  of  Bathurst  Inlet,  Franklin  reached  Point  Turn- 
again  in  109°  25'  W.,  at  the  entrance  of  Dease  Strait,  on 
the  16th  of  August,  1821.  Though  the  voyage  had 
extended  over  only  six  and  a  half  degrees  of  longitude, 
he  had  sailed  555  geographical  miles ;  and  then,  as  his 
resources  did  not  permit  of  his  going  further  or  of  his 
returning  to  the  Coppermine,  and  in  his  own  words 
"  Our  scanty  stock  of  provisions  rendering  it  necessary 
to  make  for  a  nearer  place,"  he,  on  the  22nd,  turned 
back  to  ascend  the  Hood  River. 

Here  they  soon  reached  the  Wilberforce  Falls, 
beautiful  and  remarkable,  but  not  easy  of  navigation. 
"  In  the  evening,"  says  Franklin  in  his  journal,  "  we 
encamped  at  the  lower  end  of  a  narrow  chasm  through 
which  the  river  flows  for  upwards  of  a  mile.  The  walls 
of  this  chasm  are  upwards  of  two  hundred  feet  high, 
quite  perpendicular,  and  in  some  places  only  a  few  yards 
apart.  The  river  precipitates  itself  into  it  over  a  rock 
forming  two  magnificent  and  picturesque  falls  close  to 
each  other.  The  upper  fall  is  about  sixty  feet  high, 
and  the  lower  one  at  least  one  hundred,  but  perhaps 
considerably  more,  for  the  narrowness  of  the  chasm 
into  which  it  fell  prevented  us  from  seeing  its  bottom 
and  we  could  merely  discern  the  top  of  the  spray  far 
beneath  our  feet.  The  lower  fall  is  divided  into  two  by 


156  THE   AMERICAN   MAINLAND 

an  insulated  column  of  rock  which  rises   about  forty 
feet  above  it." 

As  the  river  above  the  falls  appeared  too  rapid  and 
shallow  for  the  large  canoes  they  were  taken  to  pieces, 
and  two  smaller  ones  built  from  their  materials.  The 
voyage  in  these  lasted  but  three  days,  when  the  river 
was  abandoned  as  trending  too  far  to  the  west,  and  the 
party,  carrying  the  canoes,  proceeded  overland  to  Point 
Lake  on  their  struggle  of  starvation  across  the  Barren 
Grounds.  For  days  they  had  nothing  to  eat  but  lichens 
— species  of  Gyrophora  or  Umbilicaria  known  as  tripe- 
de-roche — a  diet  varied  with  leather,  burnt  bones  and 
skins,  an  occasional  ptarmigan,  and,  once,  a  musk  ox, 
until  they  were  so  weak  that  when  a  herd  of  reindeer 
went  strolling  past  they  had  not  strength  enough  to 
shoot  at  them. 

The  tragedy  need  not  be  lingered  over.  Back  was 
again  sent  for  help,  and,  finding  no  stores  at  Fort 
Enterprise,  was  on  his  way  to  Fort  Providence  when  he 
fell  in  with  Akaitcho,  who  at  once  hurried  to  the  rescue  ; 
and  on  the  14th  of  July,  1822,  Franklin,  Richardson, 
Back,  and  Hepburn  the  seaman,  who  had  behaved  as  a 
hero  all  through,  returned  to  York  Factory  after  a 
three  years'  journey,  fraught  with  peril  and  horror,  by 
land  and  water,  of  over  six  thousand  three  hundred 
statute  miles. 

After  he  had  been  at  home  a  year,  Franklin  suggested 
that  another  attempt  should  be  made  to  survey  the 
northern  coast  while  Parry  was  at  work  in  search  of  the 
North- West  Passage.  The  suggestion  was  accepted. 
Accompanied  by  Richardson  and  Back,  and  by  E.  N. 
Kendall  as  assistant  surveyor — who  had  been  out  with 


FRANKLIN'S  SECOND   LAND  JOURNEY         157 

Captain  Lyon  in  the  same  capacity — and  by  Thomas 
Drummond  as  assistant  naturalist,  he  left  Liverpool  on 
the  26th  of  February,  1825. 

Taught  by  experience,  the  expedition  was  better 
managed  in  every  way.  Instead  of  driving  ahead 
regardless  of  the  season  or  the  trade  routine,  the 
ordinary  conditions  of  local  travel  were  kept  in  view 
throughout,  and  the  results  were  more  in  proportion 
to  the  effort.  Three  boats  were  specially  built  at 
Woolwich  on  Franklin's  design  and  under  Buchan's 
superintendence.  They  were  of  mahogany  with  timbers 
of  ash,  both  ends  alike,  steerable  by  oar  or  rudder,  the 
largest  26  ft.  by  5  ft.  4  ins.,  the  two  others  24  ft.  by 
4  ft.  10  ins.,  and  with  them  Colonel  Pasley's  portable 
boat,  known  as  the  Walnut  Shell  from  its  shape,  9  ft. 
long  and  half  as  wide,  with  frames  of  ash  fastened  with 
thongs  and  covered  with  canvas.  The  canvas  was 
"waterproofed  by  Mr.  Macintosh,  of  Glasgow"— the 
first  instance  of  its  use — and  for  the  first  time  also  what 
we  know  as  macintosh  coats  and  overalls  were  issued 
as  part  of  the  outfit,  the  process  having  been  patented 
in  1824. 

The  boats  and  stores  were  sent  on  ahead  by  way  of 
York  Factory  in  1824,  and  Franklin  and  his  party, 
travelling  by  New  York  and  the  lakes,  caught  them  up 
on  the  Methye  River  at  sunrise  on  the  29th  of  June. 
With  them  were  several  old  friends,  not  the  least 
delighted  being  the  two  Eskimo  interpreters,  Augustus 
and  Ooligbuck,  who  were  to  be  of  the  utmost  import- 
ance throughout.  On  the  8th  of  August  they  had  got 
along  so  well  that  they  were  at  the  junction  of  the  Bear 
Lake  River  with  the  Mackenzie.  Here  Back  and  Peter 


158  THE   AMERICAN   MAINLAND 

Warren  Dease  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  who 
had  joined  the  expedition  to  look  after  the  local 
arrangements,  were  sent  off*  to  build  a  house  to  winter 
in  on  the  banks  of  the  Great  Bear  Lake,  in  Keith's  Bay, 
where  the  river  leaves  it ;  Richardson  also  left  to  explore 
the  northern  shore  of  the  lake,  and  Franklin  and 
Kendall  continuing  down  the  Mackenzie  reached  the 
sea  before  the  week  was  out  in  less  than  six  months 
from  their  departure  from  Liverpool.  And  on  the  5th 
of  September  they  had  returned  upstream  and  were  at 
their  winter  quarters  at  the  new  house  on  the  lake, 
which  Back  had  named  Fort  Franklin,  to  find  that 
Richardson  had  been  along  the  northern  shore  and 
noted  as  being  the  nearest  point  to  the  Coppermine  the 
entrance  of  the  river  he  had  named  after  Dease,  which 
was  to  be  of  so  much  service  to  him  later  on. 

During  the  winter  another  boat,  the  Reliance,  was 
built  on  the  lines  of  the  Lion,  the  largest  of  the  Wool- 
wich boats,  and  leaving  Dease  to  complete  the  stores 
for  another  comfortable  winter,  the  expedition  started 
on  the  24th  of  June.  At  Point  Separation,  at  the 
head  of  the  Mackenzie  delta,  Franklin  in  the  Lion 
with  Back  in  the  Reliance — our  old  friend  Robert 
Spinks  being  his  coxswain — took  the  western  arm,  and 
Richardson  in  the  Dolphin  and  Kendall  in  the  Union, 
carrying  the  Walnut  Shell  with  them,  took  the  eastern 
arm. 

Richardson,  with  a  few  more  or  less  threatening 
encounters  with  the  Eskimos,  ending  fairly  well  owing 
to  Ooligbuck,  and  in  constant  danger  of  wreck  avoided 
by  careful  navigation,  rounded  Cape  Bathurst  in  70°  36' 
and  discovered  Wollaston  Land,  the  coast-line  of  which 


To  face  page  158 


RICHARDSON'S  JOURNEY  159 

they  left  continuing  to  the  east,  when  they  reached 
Coronation  Gulf  and,  on  the  8th  of  August,  entered 
the  Coppermine,  and  thus  filled  in  the  gap  of  nine 
hundred  and  two  statute  miles  from  Point  Separation. 
Leaving  the  Dolphin  and  Union  at  Bloody  Fall  on  that 
river,  it  being  impossible  to  take  them  further,  the 
expedition,  carrying  the  Walnut  Shell  with  them,  pro- 
ceeded along  the  banks,  but  finding  they  had  no  use 
for  the  portable  boat,  owing  to  the  shallowness  of  the 
stream,  they  soon  abandoned  it,  and  in  67°  13',  where 
the  river  is  nearest  to  the  north-eastern  arm  of  Great 
Bear  Lake,  the  Coppermine  was  left  and  the  course 
laid  across  the  Barren  Grounds  for  Dease  River.  This 
was  reached  three  days  afterwards,  Richardson  being 
met  at  its  mouth  by  Dease's  people  on  the  24th  of 
August. 

Franklin  had  similar  experiences  with  the  Eskimos, 
and  was  as  deeply  indebted  to  Augustus  for  his  tact 
and  bravery  in  dealing  with  them.  Coasting  along  to 
the  westward,  hindered  by  ice,  bad  weather  and  fog, 
and  tormented  by  mosquitoes,  his  progress  was  much 
slower  than  that  of  Richardson.  Delayed  for  some 
days  on  or  about  Foggy  Island,  he  had  to  give  up  his 
intention  of  reaching  Bering  Strait,  and  not  knowing 
that  Elson  with  the  barge  of  the  Blossom  had  come  as 
far  east  as  Point  Barrow,  he  gave  the  name  of  Cape 
Beechey  to  the  westernmost  headland  in  sight,  and 
leaving  Return  Reef  in  148°  52'  on  the  18th  of  August, 
after  covering  six  hundred  and  ten  statute  miles  through 
parts  not  previously  discovered,  began  his  voyage  back 
to  Fort  Franklin,  where  he  arrived  on  the  21st  of 
September.  Meanwhile  Richardson  had  gone  off  to 


160  THE   AMERICAN   MAINLAND 

explore  the  Great  Slave  Lake,  whence  Drummond  had 
started  on  his  journey  among  the  Rockies ;  and,  being 
unable  to  get  away  till  another  winter  had  passed, 
both  Franklin  and  Richardson  landed  in  England  in 
September,  1827,  after  an  important  and  fruitful  ex- 
pedition that  had  no  death-roll. 

Back  was  again  in  these  regions  in  1833  on  his 
expedition  in  search  of  Sir  John  Ross.  Reaching  the 
Great  Slave  Lake,  he  built  Fort  Reliance  at  its  north- 
eastern corner  and  began  the  long  winter  there  on  the 
5th  of  November.  Soon  afterwards  Akaitcho  put  in 
an  appearance,  and  expressed  his  intention — which  he 
did  his  best  to  fulfil — of  being  of  as  much  assistance 
as  he  could ;  and  later  on  Augustus  made  his  way 
across  country  to  offer  his  services,  but,  either  exhausted 
by  suffering  and  privation,  or  caught  in  a  snowstorm, 
he  died  alone  near  the  Riviere  a  Jean. 

Temperatures  ranging  from  50  to  70  minus  were  of 
frequent  occurrence,  and,  on  one  occasion  Back,  after 
washing  his  face  within  a  yard  of  the  fire,  had  his  hair 
clotted  with  ice  before  he  had  time  to  dry  it.  Every 
animal  was  driven  away  from  the  neighbourhood  by 
the  cold,  except  a  solitary  raven  which  swept  once 
round  the  house  and  then  winged  his  flight  to  the 
westward.  On  the  25th  of  April  a  messenger  arrived 
at  the  fort  with  the  news  of  the  safe  return  of  Sir 
John  Ross  to  England,  but  Back  determined  to  pro- 
ceed with  the  journey  for  exploring  purposes,  taking 
one  boat  instead  of  two,  and,  with  Richard  King  the 
surgeon,  and  eight  men,  he  started  for  the  Great  Fish 
River  on  the  8th  of  July. 

The  voyage  was  a  hazardous  and  adventurous  one. 


BACK'S  JOURNEY  DOWN   THE   GREAT   FISH  RIVER 

To  face  page  160 


BACK   ON  THE   GREAT  FISH   RIVER  161 

For  five  hundred  and  thirty  geographical  miles  the 
river  was  found  to  run  through  an  iron-ribbed  country 
without  a  single  tree  on  the  whole  line  of  its  banks, 
expanding  into  fine  large  lakes  with  clear  horizons, 
most  embarrassing  to  the  navigator,  and  broken  into 
falls,  cascades,  and  rapids,  to  the  number  of  no  less 
than  eighty-three,  pouring  its  waters  into  the  Polar 
Sea  in  latitude  67°  11'  and  longitude  94°  30' ;  so  that 
his  explorations  on  the  northern  coast  were  confined  to 
a  section  further  east  than  Point  Turnagain. 

The  expedition  met  with  its  greatest  danger  at 
Escape  Rapid,  between  Lake  Macdougall  and  Lake 
Franklin,  on  the  25th  of  July.  Here  the  stream  was 
broken  by  a  mile  of  heavy  and  dangerous  rapids.  The 
boat  was  lightened,  and  every  care  taken  to  avoid 
accident ;  but  so  overwhelming  was  the  rush  and  whirl 
of  the  water,  that  she,  and  consequently  those  in  her, 
were  twice  in  imminent  peril  of  being  plunged  into 
one  of  the  gulfs  formed  in  the  rocks  and  hollows.  It 
was  in  one  of  these  places,  which  are  fall,  rapid,  and 
eddy  within  a  few  yards,  that  the  boat  owed  its  safety 
to  an  unintentional  disobedience  of  the  steersman's 
directions. 

The  power  of  the  water  so  far  exceeded  whatever 
had  been  witnessed  on  any  of  the  other  rivers  that  the 
precautions  used  elsewhere  were  weak  and  unavailing. 
McKay,  the  steersman,  was  endeavouring  to  clear  a  fall 
and  some  sunken  rocks  on  the  left,  but  the  man  to 
whom  he  spoke  misunderstood  him,  and  did  exactly  the 
reverse ;  and  then,  seeing  the  danger,  the  steersman 
swept  the  stern  round ;  instantly  the  boat  was  caught 
by  an  eddy  to  the  right,  which,  snapping  an  oar,  twirled 


162  THE  AMERICAN   MAINLAND 

her  irresistibly  broadside  on ;  so  that  for  a  moment  it 
seemed  uncertain  whether  the  boat  was  to  be  hurled 
into  the  hollow  of  the  fall,  or  dashed  stern  foremost  on 
the  sunken  rocks.  Of  how  it  happened  no  account  can 
be  given,  but  her  head  swung  inshore  towards  the  beach 
and  thereby  gave  an  opportunity  for  some  of  the  men 
to  spring  into  the  water  and  by  their  united  strength 
rescue  her  from  her  perilous  position.  Had  the  man 
to  whom  the  first  order  was  given  understood  and  acted 
on  it  no  human  power  could  have  saved  the  crew  from 
being  buried  in  the  abyss.  Nor  yet  could  any  blame  be 
justly  attached  to  the  steersman,  who  had  never  been  so 
situated  before  and  whose  coolness  and  self-possession 
never  in  this  imminent  peril  forsook  him.  At  the 
awful  moment  of  suspense,  when  one  of  the  crew  with 
less  nerve  than  his  companions  began  to  cry  aloud  to 
Heaven  for  aid,  McKay  in  a  still  louder  voice  ex- 
claimed, "  Is  this  a  time  for  praying  ?  Pull  your  star- 
board oar."  Never  could  a  reminder  that  labor  are  est 
orare  have  been  more  opportune. 

On  the  1st  of  August  Montreal  Island  was  reached. 
Nine  days  afterwards  a  log  of  driftwood,  nine  feet  long 
and  nine  inches  in  diameter,  jocularly  described  as  a 
piece  of  the  North  Pole,  was  found  on  the  beach, 
which,  as  there  are  no  trees  on  the  Fish  River  or  the 
Coppermine,  Captain  Back  was  of  opinion  must 
have  come  from  the  Mackenzie  and  drifted  eastward,  so 
that  he  was  on  the  main  line  of  the  land.  The  in- 
ference, confirmed  by  the  appearance  of  a  whale,  was 
correct,  but,  misled,  perhaps,  by  hilly  islands,  he  missed 
the  channel  through  which  it  had  come,  blocking  it, 
in  the  manner  of  John  Ross,  with  a  range  of  mountains 


THE  PARRY  FALLS  163 

that  does  not  exist.  Though  he  reached  Mount  Barrow 
and  mistook  the  head  of  Simpson  Strait  for  an  inlet, 
thus  failing  to  find  one  of  the  north-west  passages,  he 
discovered  and  named  King  William  Land  and  sighted 
Point  Booth  at  its  eastern  extremity.  An  attempt  to 
reach  Point  Turnagain  to  the  westward  and  thus  link 
up  with  Franklin's  farthest  east,  in  which  he  might 
have  discovered  the  passage,  proving  impracticable 
owing  to  the  bogginess  of  the  ground,  Back  began  his 
return  from  King  William  Land  in  latitude  68°  13', 
longitude  94°  58',  and  entered  on  a  wearisome  journey 
up  the  river  and  lakes  he  had  come  down,  meeting 
with  a  party  from  Fort  Reliance  on  the  17th  of 
September. 

A  week  after,  when  within  a  couple  of  days  of  the 
fort,  on  that  "  small  but  abominable  river  "  the  Ah-hel- 
dessy  from  Artillery  Lake,  Back  discovered  the  Anderson 
Falls.  Toiling  along  over  the  mountains,  every  man 
with  a  seventy-five-pound  package  on  his  back,  he  had 
not  proceeded  more  than  six  or  seven  miles  when,  observ- 
ing the  spray  rising  from  another  fall,  he  was  induced  to 
visit  it  and  was  well  consoled  for  having  left  the  boat 
behind.  "  From  the  only  point,"  says  Back,  "  at  which 
the  greater  part  of  it  was  visible,  we  could  distinguish 
the  river  coming  sharp  round  a  rock,  and  falling  into 
an  upper  basin  almost  concealed  by  intervening  rocks ; 
whence  it  broke  in  one  vast  sheet  into  a  chasm  between 
four  and  five  hundred  feet  deep,  yet  in  appearance  so 
narrow  that  we  fancied  we  could  almost  step  across  it. 
Out  of  this  the  spray  rose  in  misty  columns  several 
hundred  feet  above  our  heads  ;  but  as  it  was  impossible 
to  see  the  main  fall  from  the  side  on  which  we  were,  in 


164.  THE   AMERICAN   MAINLAND 

the  following  spring  I  paid  a  second  visit  to  it, 
approaching  from  the  western  bank.  The  road  to  it, 
which  I  then  traversed  in  snow-shoes,  was  fatiguing  in 
the  extreme,  and  scarcely  less  dangerous  ;  for,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  steep  ascents,  fissures  in  the  rocks,  and 
deep  snow  in  the  valleys,  we  had  sometimes  to  creep 
along  the  narrow  shelves  of  precipices  slippery  with  the 
frozen  mist  that  fell  on  them.  But  it  was  a  sight  that 
well  repaid  any  risk.  My  first  impression  was  of  a 
strong  resemblance  to  an  iceberg  in  Smeerenberg 
Harbour,  Spitsbergen.  The  whole  face  of  the  rocks 
forming  the  chasm  was  entirely  coated  with  blue, 
green,  and  white  ice,  in  thousands  of  pendent  icicles ; 
and  there  were,  moreover,  caverns,  fissures,  and  over- 
hanging ledges  in  all  imaginable  varieties  of  form,  so 
curious  and  beautiful  as  to  surpass  anything  of  which  I 
had  ever  heard  or  read.  The  immediate  approaches 
were  extremely  hazardous,  nor  could  we  obtain  a  per- 
fect view  of  the  lower  fall,  in  consequence  of  the  pro- 
jection of  the  western  cliffs.  At  the  lowest  position 
we  were  able  to  attain,  we  were  still  more  than  a 
hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  river  beneath  ;  and 
this,  instead  of  being  narrow  enough  to  step  across,  as  it 
had  seemed  from  the  opposite  heights,  was  found  to  be 
at  least  two  hundred  feet  wide.  The  colour  of  the  water 
varied  from  a  very  light  to  a  very  dark  green ;  and  the 
spray,  which  spread  a  dimness  above,  was  thrown  up  in 
clouds  of  light  grey.  Niagara,  Wilberforce  Falls  on 
Hood  River,  the  falls  of  Kakabikka  near  Lake 
Superior,  the  Swiss  or  Italian  falls — although  they  may 
each  charm  the  eye  with  dread — are  not  to  be  compared 
to  this  for  splendour  of  effect.  It  was  the  most  im- 


SIR  GEORGE   SIMPSON  165 

posing  spectacle  I  had  ever  witnessed  ;  and,  as  its  berg- 
like  appearance  brought  to  mind  associations  of  another 
scene,  I  bestowed  upon  it  the  name  of  our  celebrated 
navigator,  Sir  Edward  Parry,  and  called  it  Parry's 
Falls." 

Back,  like  Franklin,  owed  much  of  the  success  of 
his  expedition  to  the  cordial  help  of  the  Governor  of 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  George,  afterwards  Sir 
George,  Simpson.  Ever  the  fastest  of  travellers  in  the 
north,  Simpson  had,  in  1828,  made  a  3260-mile  canoe 
voyage  from  Hudson  Bay  to  the  Pacific,  passing  the 
Rockies  through  canyons  previously  untried,  and 
slipping  down  mountain  torrents  and  through  unknown 
rapids  at  such  speed  that  hostile  Indians  let  him  pass 
in  sheer  amazement ;  and  all  his  life  he  was  dis- 
tinguished for  similar  energy  and  celerity.  When  it 
became  clear  that  the  British  Government  had  no 
immediate  intention  of  completing  the  survey  of  the 
northern  coast,  Simpson  organised  an  expedition  at  the 
Company's  expense  to  undertake  the  task,  and  entrusted 
the  leadership  to  Dease,  who  had  done  such  excellent 
work  for  Franklin ;  and  with  Dease  he  associated  his 
own  nephew,  Thomas  Simpson,  in  no  way  inferior  to 
his  uncle  in  energy,  speediness,  or  decision  of  character, 
being  in  fact  one  of  our  very  best  explorers,  Arctic  or 
otherwise. 

Thomas  Simpson,  Master  of  Arts  of  Aberdeen  and  a 
winner  of  the  Huttonian,  began  characteristically  by 
starting  off  to  Fort  Garry — now  Winnipeg — with  a 
view,  as  he  says,  "to  refresh  and  extend  my  astro- 
nomical practice  which  had  for  some  years  been  inter- 
rupted by  avocations  of  a  very  different  nature  " ;  and 


166  THE   AMERICAN   MAINLAND 

thence,  in  the  winter,  making  his  way  to  Fort  Chippe- 
wyan,  a  journey  of  1277  miles,  joining  Dease  there 
more  than  a  month  before  he  was  expected.  Two 
boats  were  built,  light  clinker  craft  of  24  ft.  keel  and 
6  ft.  beam,  adapted  for  shallow  navigation  by  their 
small  draught,  both  alike  and  honoured  with  the 
classical  names  of  the  heavenly  twins,  Castor  and 
Pollux,  each  boat  provided  with  a  small  oiled  canvas 
canoe  and  portable  wooden  frame.  Of  one,  the  steers- 
man was  the  redoubtable  James  McKay — "  Pull  your 
starboard  oar ! " — and  of  the  other,  George  Sinclair, 
Back's  bowman ;  and  one  of  the  bowmen  was  Felix, 
who  had  been  with  Franklin  in  1826.  All  told,  the 
expedition  numbered  fourteen. 

Leaving  Fort  Chippewyan  on  the  1st  of  June,  1837, 
they  reached  Bear  Lake  River  on  the  3rd  of  July,  and 
six  days  afterwards  were  out  on  the  sea.  On  the  23rd 
of  July  they  camped  at  Return  Reef,  that  is  to  say 
they  had  traversed  the  whole  extent  of  Franklin's 
survey  in  a  fortnight,  and  not  without  danger  from 
the  ice  and  losing  much  time  by  doubling  the  floes, 
however  far  they  extended  seawards.  Once  Simpson's 
boat,  which  was  of  course  leading,  was  only  saved  from 
destruction  by  throwing  out  everything  it  contained 
upon  the  floating  masses.  By  means  of  portages  made 
from  one  fragment  to  another,  the  oars  forming  the 
perilous  bridges,  and  after  repeated  risks  of  boats,  men, 
and  baggage  being  separated  by  the  motion  of  the  ice, 
they  succeeded  with  much  labour  in  collecting  the 
whole  equipment  on  one  floe,  which,  being  covered 
with  water,  formed  a  sort  of  wet  dock.  There  they 
hauled  up  the  boats,  momentarily  liable  to  be  over- 


THOMAS  SIMPSON  167 

whelmed  by  the  turning  over  of  the  ice,  three  miles 
from  land,  with  the  fog  settled  round  them  throughout 
the  inclement  night. 

Continuing  westwards  along  new  country,  they 
reached  and  named  Cape  George  Simpson  (after  the 
Governor)  and,  a  little  further  on,  Boat  Extreme, 
where,  from  the  coldness  of  the  weather  and  the  inter- 
minable ice,  the  further  advance  of  the  boats  appeared 
to  be  so  hopeless  that  Dease  agreed  to  stay  in  charge 
of  them  while  Simpson  with  five  men,  including 
McKay  and  Felix,  pushed  ahead  for  Point  Barrow  on 
foot.  Passing  McKay  Inlet  and  Sinclair  River,  named 
after  the  two  steersmen,  an  Eskimo  camp  was  reached, 
where  Simpson  exchanged  his  tin  plate  for  a  platter 
made  out  of  a  mammoth  tusk,  and  borrowed  an  oomiak 
which  floated  in  about  half  a  foot  of  water.  In  this 
useful  skin  boat  the  journey  was  resumed  to  Point 
Barrow,  and  on  the  4th  of  August  the  survey  com- 
pleted between  Franklin's  farthest  and  Elson's. 

The  winter  was  passed  at  the  mouth  of  the  Dease 
River,  on  Great  Bear  Lake,  where  Fort  Confidence 
had  been  built  ready  for  the  expedition  on  its  return. 
On  the  6th  of  June,  1838,  a  start  for  the  coast  was 
made  by  the  Coppermine  route,  that  river  being  reached 
on  the  22nd,  and  its  descent  accomplished,  on  the  spring 
flood,  in  nine  days.  But  it  was  a  bad  season,  and  the 
navigation  was  so  hampered  by  ice  that  no  start  was 
made  to  the  eastward  until  the  17th  of  July.  At 
Boathaven,  in  109°  20',  Simpson  again  left  the  boats 
and  went  ahead  with  Sinclair  and  six  others  who  had 
not  been  to  Point  Barrow.  Passing  Franklin's  farthest 
at  Point  Turnagain,  he  kept  on  for  a  hundred  miles 


168  THE   AMERICAN   MAINLAND 

along  the  whole  length  of  Dease  Strait,  discovering 
and  naming  Victoria  Land,  reaching  Beaufort  River 
beyond  Cape  Alexander,  and  sighting  an  open  sea  to 
the  eastward.  From  here,  in  106°  3',  the  return  began ; 
and  by  many  devices  and  the  unfailing  skill  of  McKay 
and  Sinclair,  the  two  boats  were  taken  up  the  Copper- 
mine stream,  falls  and  rapids  and  all,  to  the  nearest 
point  to  Fort  Confidence,  where  they  were  hauled  up 
in  readiness  for  next  year. 

On  the  22nd  of  June,  1839,  the  boats  again  left  for 
the  sea  ;  and  they  were  run  down  to  Bloody  Fall  with- 
out a  stoppage  in  eleven  hours.  Again  there  were 
fourteen  all  told  in  them,  but  this  time  one  of  the  men 
was  Ooglibuck,  who  had  come  specially  from  Ungava  in 
Labrador,  in  the  wonderful  time  of  three  months  less 
eight  days,  to  join  the  expedition  which  was  to  meet 
with  great  success  and  accomplish  an  Arctic  boat 
journey  of  over  sixteen  hundred  statute  miles. 

Entirely  blocked  until  the  3rd  of  July,  and  hindered 
by  ice  difficulties  all  the  way,  the  boats  did  not  reach 
the  previous  year's  farthest  until  the  28th  of  July. 
On  the  llth  of  August,  through  an  outlet  only  three 
miles  wide,  they  passed  into  the  much-desired  eastern 
sea.  "  That  glorious  sight,"  says  Simpson,  after  whom 
the  strait  is  named,  "  was  first  beheld  by  myself  from 
the  top  of  one  of  the  high  limestone  islands,  and  I  had 
the  satisfaction  of  announcing  it  to  some  of  the  men 
who,  incited  by  curiosity,  followed  me  thither.  The 
joyful  news  was  soon  conveyed  to  Mr.  Dease,  who  was 
with  the  boats  at  the  end  of  the  island,  about  half  a 
mile  off."  On  the  continent  and  on  King  William 
Land,  where  Franklin's  men  were  in  time  coming  to 


DISCOVERY  OF  SIMPSON  STRAIT  169 

perish  of  starvation,  reindeer  were  seen  browsing  on  the 
scanty  herbage  among  the  shingle.  A  terrible  thunder- 
storm followed,  and  then,  doubling  a  very  sharp  point 
on  the  13th,  Simpson  landed  and  saw  before  him  a 
sandy  desert.  It  was  Back's  Point  Sir  C.  Ogle  that  he 
had  at  length  reached.  Away  in  the  distance  was  the 
Great  Fish  River,  and  three  days  afterwards  the  party 
were  encamped  on  Montreal  Island,  where  McKay  led 
the  way  to  the  provisions  and  gunpowder  deposited  by 
Back  among  the  rocks. 

The  expedition  had  performed  its  allotted  task,  and 
the  men  were  consulted  as  to  whether  they  would  con- 
tinue for  a  short  distance  to  the  eastward.  To  their 
honour  they  all  assented  without  a  murmur ;  but  the 
cruel  north-east  wind  forbade  much  progress  in  that 
direction,  and  their  farthest  east  was  reached  at  Castor 
and  Pollux  River.  From  there  immediate  return  was 
imperative,  as  not  a  day  could  be  spared.  And  so, 
from  latitude  68°  28'  23",  longitude  94°  14/,  they  turned 
back  on  the  21st  of  August,  leaving  the  survey  of  the 
north  coast  of  the  American  mainland  practically  com- 
plete from  Bering  Strait  to  Boothia. 

Further,  on  their  return  journey  they  crossed  to  the 
southern  shore  of  King  William  Land  and  traced  its  coast 
for  nearly  sixty  miles,  discovering  and  naming  Cape 
Herschel,  south-eastward  of  which,  in  Simpson  Strait, 
M'Clintock  found  the  remains  of  one  of  Franklin's 
men.  They  thus  linked  up  with  what  was  to  be  the 
route  of  the  Franklin  expedition  and  were  the  first  to 
find  the  North-West  Passage  for  the  command  of 
which  the  territory  was  given  by  Charles  II  to  the 
Hudson's  Bay  Company. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE   PARRY   ISLANDS 

John  Rae— Wollaston  Land  and  Victoria  Strait— Overlaps  Franklin's  route— 
M'Clure  discovers  Prince  of  Wales  Strait— The  North- West  Passage- 
Banks  Land— M'Clure  rescued  by  Bedford  Pirn— Collinson's  remarkable 
voyage— In  Beaufort  Sea — Reaches  Banks  Strait — Voyage  to  Cambridge 
Bay — On  Franklin's  route— The  North- West  Passage  sailed  by  Amundsen 
along  the  track  of  the  Enterprise— Sir  John  Barrow — Parry's  first  voyage 
— Penetrates  Lancaster  Sound  and  discovers  the  Parry  Islands — Stopped 
by  ice  in  Banks  Strait— The  search  for  Franklin— Sir  John  Ross— De 
Haven  —  Penny — Austin  —  Ommanney  —  Osborn  —  Belcher  —  Kellett— 
M'Clintock— Drift  of  the  Resolute— Sledge  work— Sverdrup's  discoveries 
during  his  four  years  in  the  north. 

r  I  "HE  second  to  complete  a  north-west  passage  by 
-L  linking  up  with  Franklin's  voyage  was  Dr.  John 
Rae,  an  Orkneyman  by  birth,  as  energetic  as  Thomas 
Simpson  and  evidently  not  inferior  to  him  in  stamina, 
for  in  his  Arctic  journeys  he  walked  a  distance  equal  to 
that  of  the  circumference  of  the  earth.  In  1846  he 
had  surveyed  the  Committee  Bay  district  between 
Boothia  and  the  Melville  Peninsula,  reaching  it  from 
Repulse  Bay,  and  in  1848  and  1849  he  had  been  associ- 
ated with  Richardson  in  searching  for  Franklin  along  the 
coast  from  the  Mackenzie  eastwards.  Next  year,  while 
in  charge  of  the  Mackenzie  district,  he  was  again  re- 
quested to  lead  a  Franklin  search  expedition,  and, 
starting  from  Fort  Confidence  on  the  25th  of  April, 
was  on  the  sea  by  the  1st  of  May.  Crossing  over  to 
Wollaston  Land,  and  making  westward  along  the  coast 

170 


To  face  page  170 


RAE  FINDS  THE  FIRST  TRACE  OF  FRANKLIN  171 
on  the  22nd  of  May,  he  rounded  Cape  Baring,  just 
above  the  seventieth  parallel.  Crossing  to  its  con- 
tinuation, Victoria  Land,  on  a  second  journey,  he 
travelled  eastward,  and,  going  up  Victoria  Strait, 
rounded  Pelly  Point,  also  just  above  the  seventieth 
parallel,  on  the  12th  of  July,  thus  practically  complet- 
ing the  survey  of  the  southern  half  of  what  Collinson 
was  to  prove  is  one  large  island. 

Off  Pelly  Point,  it  afterwards  appeared,  the  Erebus 
and  Terror  were  beset  in  the  ice  in  September,  1846, 
and  fifty  miles  to  the  south-east  they  had  been 
abandoned  in  April,  1848  ;  but  the  only  relic  found  by 
Rae  on  this  occasion  was  the  doubtful  one — picked  up 
in  Parker  Bay — of  the  butt-end  of  a  flag-staff  on 
which  was  nailed  a  piece  of  white  line  by  two  copper 
tacks,  all  three  bearing  the  Government  mark.  This 
was  the  first  to  be  found  of  anything  that  could  be 
thought  to  be  a  trace  of  the  missing  ships,  a  sort 
of  promise  of  what  he  was  to  meet  with  four  years 
later ;  and  it  is  worth  noting  that,  had  he  not  failed  in 
getting  across  the  strait  to  King  William  Land,  Rae 
would  in  1850  have  probably  discovered  Franklin's 
fate. 

His  farthest  in  these  parts  was  passed  in  May,  1853, 
by  Captain  Richard  Collinson,  in  his  sledge  journey  to 
Gateshead  Island  from  H.M.S.  Enterprise,  then  winter- 
ing in  Cambridge  Bay.  The  Enterprise  and  Investigator 
had  been  placed  under  Collinson's  command  and  sent 
by  way  of  Cape  Horn  to  search  for  Franklin  from 
the  west,  the  instructions  being  that  the  ships  should 
not  part  company ;  but  regardless  of  this,  Commander 
Robert  Le  Mesurier  M'Clure,  of  the  Investigator, 


172  THE   PARRY   ISLANDS 

happening  to  get  through  Bering  Strait  first,  declined 
to  wait  for  his  commanding  officer,  went  off  on  an 
expedition  on  his  own  account  and,  by  a  sledge  journey, 
joined  Parry's  track  when  in  search  of  the  North- West 
Passage. 

Steering  north-east  from  Franklin  Bay,  M'Clure 
reached  the  south  of  Parry's  Banks  Land  and  followed 
the  coast  north-eastwards,  discovering  Prince  of  Wales 
Strait  and  making  his  way  rather  more  than  half-way 
up,  until,  near  Princess  Royal  Island  in  72°  50',  he 
was  caught  in  the  ice  and  imprisoned  for  the  winter. 
On  Trafalgar  Day,  1850,  M'Clure  left  the  Investigator 
on  a  sledge  journey  up  the  strait,  and  at  sunrise  on  the 
26th  of  October,  from  Mount  Observation  in  73°  30',  a 
hill  six  hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  he  looked  over 
Banks  Strait  and  Melville  Sound,  and  saw  the  coast  of 
Banks  Land  terminating  about  twelve  miles  further  on 
and  thence  trending  to  the  north-west,  while  Wollaston 
Land,  as  it  proved  to  be,  turned  eastward  on  the  other 
side  at  Peel  Point.  That  evening  Banks  Strait  was 
reached  at  Cape  Lord  John  Russell,  and  the  North- 
West  Passage  by  Prince  of  Wales  Strait  clearly 
demonstrated.  The  spot  was  not  bare  of  vegetation, 
and  there  were  many  traces  of  animals,  for,  fortunately 
for  M'Clure,  there  was  no  scarcity  of  game  during  his 
three  winterings  in  Banks  Land- — reindeer  in  herds, 
musk  oxen  occasionally,  hares  in  troops,  ducks  in 
plenty,  ptarmigan  almost  as  numerous,  and  bears, 
wolves,  and  foxes  to  feed  on  them ;  for  instance,  the 
weights  of  three  items  in  the  bag,  1945  Ib.  of  musk  ox, 
7716  Ib.  of  deer,  and  1017  Ib.  of  hare,  show  fairly  good 
shooting. 


IVTCLURE   IN   BANKS   LAND  173 

Enclosing  a  record  of  the  visit  in  a  cairn,  M'Clure 
returned  to  the  ship,  from  which  in  the  spring  three 
sledge  parties  were  sent  out — Cresswell's  to  the  north- 
west finding  that  Banks  Land  was  an  island,  Wynniatt's 
to  the  north-east  reaching  Reynolds  Point  on  the  north 
of  Wollaston  Land,  and  Haswell's  down  Wollaston 
Land  to  within  forty  miles  of  where  Rae  turned  back 
about  a  week  later — this  being  the  only  attempt  at 
searching  for  Franklin  that  the  expedition  undertook 
after  sighting  Nelson  Head.  Released  in  July,  the 
Investigator  retreated  down  the  strait  and  attempted  to 
circumnavigate  Banks  Land,  finding  to  the  west  a 
coast  as  precipitous  as  a  wall,  the  water  deep — fifteen 
fathoms  close  in,  with  the  yardarms  almost  touching 
the  cliffs  on  one  hand  and  the  lofty  ice  on  the  other — 
and  the  pack  drawing  forty  feet  of  water,  rising  in 
rolling  hills  a  hundred  feet  from  base  to  summit.  On 
shore  the  hills  were  as  remarkable.  Many  of  them 
were  peaked  and  isolated  by  precipitous  gorges,  about 
three  hundred  feet  deep.  And  all  the  way  up  them 
were  numbers  of  fallen  trees,  in  many  places  in  layers, 
some  protruding  twelve  or  fourteen  feet,  one  of  these 
trunks  measuring  nineteen  inches  in  diameter.  Says 
M'Clure  :  "  I  entered  a  ravine  some  miles  inland,  and 
found  the  north  side  of  it,  for  a  depth  of  forty  feet 
from  the  surface,  composed  of  one  mass  of  wood 
similar  to  what  I  had  before  seen.  The  whole  depth 
of  the  ravine  was  about  two  hundred  feet.  The 
ground  around  the  wood  or  trees  was  formed  of  sand 
and  shingle;  some  of  the  wood  was  petrified,  the  re- 
mainder very  rotten  and  worthless  even  for  burning." 
And  this  forest  bed  is  on  the  shore  of  the  Beaufort  Sea 


174  THE   PARRY   ISLANDS 

in  74°  north  latitude,  a  similar  one  being  in  Prince 
Patrick  Island,  on  the  other  side  of  Banks  Strait. 

After  one  or  two  narrow  escapes  the  Investigator 
entered  her  last  home  at  the  Bay  of  Mercy,  well 
within  the  strait,  near  Cape  Hamilton,  the  most 
prominent  of  the  three  capes  discovered  from  the 
Dundas  Peninsula  by  Parry's  lieutenant,  Beechey, 
thirty-one  years  before.  The  winter  passed,  and  on 
the  llth  of  April  M'Clure  left  the  ship  on  a  sledge 
journey  across  to  Parry's  old  quarters  at  Winter 
Harbour,  which  were  reached  on  the  28th,  to  find 
nothing  but  a  notice  of  M'Clintock's  having  been  there 
in  the  previous  June.  Noticing  Parry's  inscription 
rock,  M'Clure  judiciously  left  on  it  a  statement  that 
the  Investigator  was  in  want  of  relief  at  Mercy  Bay. 
But  all  through  that  year  no  news  from  the  outside 
came  to  Banks  Land,  and  matters  became  serious 
owing  to  the  appearance  of  scurvy,  notwithstanding 
the  abundance  of  fresh  meat,  for  even  in  January  a 
herd  of  reindeer  trotted  by. 

Another  winter  went  wearily,  each  month  with  a 
gloomier  outlook  than  the  last,  and  on  the  5th  of  April 
the  first  of  the  scurvy  patients  died.  Next  morning 
M'Clure  and  Has  well  were  walking  near  the  ship  dis- 
cussing how  they  could  dig  a  grave  in  the  frozen 
ground,  when  they  noticed  a  man  hurriedly  approach- 
ing from  the  entrance  of  the  bay,  throwing  up  his 
arms  and  shouting  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  his  face  as 
black  as  ebony.  When  he  came  within  talking  range 
the  dark-faced  stranger  called  out,  "I  am  Lieutenant 
Pirn,  late  of  the  Herald  and  now  in  the  Resolute; 
Captain  Kellett  is  in  her  at  Dealy  Island."  And  soon 


THE   PARRY   ISLANDS 


100  0  100         200         300          400          500 


To  face  page  174 


COLLINSON'S  VOYAGE  175 

the  dog- sledge  with  two  men  came  into  view.  Pirn's 
arrival  was  most  fortunate  for  the  sufferers,  for  the 
captain,  as  a  desperate  resource,  was — in  spite  of  the 
doctor's  protests — just  about  to  send  off  two  sledge 

irties  of  the  invalids  to  take  their  chance  of  escaping 
somehow,  as  there  was  no  hope  of  their  recovery  in 
the  ship ;  and  on  examination  by  the  doctor  of  the 
Resolute,  it  was  found  that  every  man  of  the  crew  was 
more  or  less  affected  by  the  disease.  So  the  ship  was 
abandoned  in  Mercy  Bay,  and  the  officers  and  crew, 
crossing  to  the  Resolute,  reached  England  by  way  of 
Hudson  Strait. 

Collinson's  was  the  most  remarkable  voyage  ever 
accomplished  by  a  sailing-ship  in  the  Arctic  regions. 
It  lasted  from  1850  to  1855 — five  years  and  a  hundred 
and  sixteen  days — all  the  way  out  across  the  Atlantic 
and  Pacific  and  home  again  in  safety,  traversing  a 
hundred  and  twenty-eight  degrees  of  longitude  in  the 
Arctic  sea,  coming  nearest  at  the  time  to  completing 
the  north-west  passage  by  ship  (up  Prince  of  Wales 
Strait),  finding  two  north-west  passages  by  sledge  (one 
joining  with  Parry's  discoveries  across  Banks  Strait, 
the  other  with  Franklin's  up  Victoria  Strait),  and 
approaching  nearer  than  any  other  naval  expedition 
to  the  great  discovery  by  travelling  up  Franklin's 
route  for  some  distance,  and  passing  within  thirty  miles 
of  the  spot  where  the  vessels  he  was  in  search  of  had 
been  abandoned,  though  unfortunately,  like  Rae,  he 
was  on  the  west  side  of  the  waterway  instead  of  the 
east. 

Passing  Bering  Strait  in  July,  1850,  the  Enterprise 
went  north  from  Wainwright  Inlet  into  the  Beaufort 


176  THE   PARRY   ISLANDS 

Sea,  until  she  was  stopped  by  the  heavy  pack.  Trying 
east,  to  join  with  Parry's  farthest,  and  then  west,  she 
arrived,  on  the  28th  of  August,  at  73°  23'  in  164°,  and 
here  she  turned  south  after  having  sailed  over  eleven 
thousand  miles  without  having  to  reef  her  topsails,  an 
unprecedented  run  of  distance  and  fine  weather  com- 
bined. Returning  in  1851  from  wintering  at  Hong 
Kong,  Collinson,  with  a  southerly  wind  "too  precious 
to  be  wasted,"  made  his  way  up  Prince  of  Wales 
Strait,  knowing  nothing  of  the  visit  of  the  Investigator, 
to  find  ice  blocking  his  way  just  at  the  northern  outlet, 
his  furthest  north,  by  ship,  73°  30',  forty  miles  beyond 
M'Clure's  winter  quarters,  as  given  in  the  record  he 
found  in  one  of  the  cairns. 

Unable  to  round  the  corner  into  Banks  Strait  owing 
to  the  ice  block,  Collinson  returned  down  Prince  of 
Wales  Strait  and  followed  the  track  of  the  Investigator 
half-way  up  the  west  coast  of  Banks  Land,  though  he 
had  found  nothing  to  indicate  she  had  gone  in  that 
direction.  Finding  the  ice  conditions  dangerous,  he 
retraced  his  route  along  the  coast  and  went  into  com- 
fortable winter  quarters  in  Walker  Bay,  at  the  entrance 
of  Prince  of  Wales  Strait.  By  the  end  of  November 
the  natives  fishing  for  salmon-trout  had  cleared  off,  as 
also  had  the  reindeer,  hares,  and  ptarmigan  and  other 
birds,  and  on  the  17th  of  March  the  ravens,  which  had 
been  the  last  to  leave,  were  the  first  to  return.  In 
April  sledge  parties  went  out,  one  of  which  under 
Lieutenant  Parkes  crossed  the  route  of  the  Hecla 
along  the  strait  and  reached  Melville  Island  at  Cape 
Providence  on  the  way  to  Winter  Harbour,  short  of 
which,  within  sight  of  Point  Hearne,  Parkes  began  his 


THROUGH   CORONATION  GULF  177 

homeward  journey,  owing  to  his  taking  the  tracks  of 
sledges  and  barking  of  dogs  as  indicating  the  presence, 
not  of  M'Clure  as  it  did,  but  of  Eskimos,  with  whom, 
being  without  weapons,  he  was  unable  to  cope. 

Released  on  the  5th  of  August,  the  Enterprise  pro- 
ceeded to  sea,  coasting  along  past  Rae's  farthest  and 
Cape  Baring,  and  so,  where  no  ship  had  been,  through 
Coronation  Gulf  to  Cambridge  Bay.  Here  the  winter 
of  1852-3  was  spent,  and  hence  the  sledges  went  up 
Victoria  Strait.  At  Finlayson  Islands,  what  seemed 
to  be  a  piece  of  a  companion-door  was  found  among 
the  driftwood,  which  might  have  been  a  relic  of  the 
lost  ships ;  but  that  was  all.  During  the  return  along 
the  northern  coast  the  Enterprise  was  beset  in  Cam  den 
Bay,  and  here  the  third  winter  was  passed,  release  not 
coming  until  the  end  of  the  following  July,  and  Bering 
Strait  not  being  reached  until  the  21st  of  August  after 
a  voyage,  like  that  of  the  Vega,  too  well  managed  to 
yield  much  adventure.  Like  all  the  other  Arctic 
voyages  of  this  period,  it  failed  in  the  one  object  it 
was  undertaken  to  achieve ;  but  in  days  to  come  the 
first  ship  to  sail  the  passage  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific  was  to  follow  Collinson  from  Cambridge  Bay 
along  the  route  laboriously  completed  by  the  surveyors 
of  the  mainland  from  James  Cook  to  Dease  and 
Simpson. 

M'Clure  claimed  and — to  have  done  with  the  matter 
— obtained  the  reward  of  £10,000  for  discovering  the 
North- West  Passage  through  Prince  of  AVales  Strait, 
though  he  sailed  only  half-way  up  it  and,  in  attempting 
to  get  round  to  Parry's  farthest,  lost  his  ship  and 
started  sledging  on  the  west  side  of  the  pack ;  while 


178  THE   PARRY   ISLANDS 

Collinson  took  his  ship  much  nearer  to  Parry's  course 
on  the  east  side ;  and  Franklin,  by  linking  up  with 
Dease  and  Simpson  over  the  ice  by  way  of  Victoria 
Strait,  had  previously  found  another  of  the  possible 
passages,  as  shown  by  Collinson's  voyage  to  Cambridge 
Bay.  But  surely  what  was  done  by  M'Clure,  and  by 
Collinson  in  his  northerly  cruise,  was  to  see  where  ships 
could  pass  when  there  was  no  ice  in  the  way,  which 
was  no  more  than  had  been  done  by  Parry,  who  had 
taken  his  ship  within  sight  of  both  their  farthests,  and 
would  have  sailed  into  the  Beaufort  Sea  had  not  the 
pack  forbidden  it.  It  was  Parry,  in  fact,  who  dis- 
covered the  main  road,  the  route  by  Prince  of  Wales 
Strait,  like  that  by  Peel  Sound  taken  by  Franklin  and 
successfully  accomplished  by  Amundsen,  being  only 
one  of  the  many  by-roads  leading  off  along  his  course. 
His  famous  voyage  to  Melville  Island  was  due  to  the 
influence  of  Sir  John  Barrow.  Barrow,  to  whom  more 
than  any  other  man  this  country  owes  its  position  in 
Arctic  story,  was  born  in  a  small  thatched  cottage  at 
Dragley  Beck,  near  U Iverston,  in  North  Lancashire,  in 
1764,  and,  in  a  remarkable  course  of  promotion  by 
merit,  became  second  secretary  of  the  Admiralty  for 
forty  years  under  twelve  or  thirteen  different  naval 
administrations,  Whig  and  Tory;  being  so  unmistakably 
the  right  man  in  the  right  place  that  he  was  only  dis- 
pensed with  once — on  a  change  of  First  Lords — and 
then  was  reinstated  the  next  year.  When  he  was 
seventeen  he  was  given  the  opportunity  of  a  voyage 
in  a  Greenland  whaler,  which  he  accepted,  and  that 
was  his  only  Arctic  experience ;  but  even  when  with 
Macartney  in  China  and  South  Africa,  he  kept  up 


To  face  page  178 


PARRY'S   GREAT  VOYAGE  179 

his  interest  in  the  north,  and  in  1817,  when  at  the 
Admiralty,  proposed  to  Lord  Melville  his  plan  for  two 
voyages  of  discovery,  one  to  the  north  and  the  other 
to  the  north-west,  which  opened  the  new  era  of  Polar 
exploration. 

The  voyage  to  the  north  was  that  of  Buchan  and 
Franklin  in  the  Dorothea  and  Trent;  that  to  the  north- 
west was  undertaken  by  John  Ross  in  the  Isabella  and 
William  Edward  Parry  in  the  Alexander.  Of  this  we 
need  only  say  here  that  on  their  return  from  the  north 
of  Baffin  Bay,  Ross  and  Parry  coasted  down  the  west 
side  and  sailed  into  Lancaster  Sound  for  a  considerable 
distance  until  Ross — who  seems  to  have  had  the 
mountain-finding  eye  and  an  unenviable  gift  for  miss- 
ing straits — declared  that  it  ended  in  a  range  of  moun- 
tains which  he  appropriately  named  Croker's ;  and,  that 
there  should  be  no  mistake  about  them,  he  gave  a  very 
pretty  picture  of  them  as  a  full-page  plate  in  his  book. 
Parry,  however,  saw  no  mountains  and  took  the  liberty 
of  saying  so  to  Barrow  when  he  reported  himself  at  the 
Admiralty,  the  result  being  the  despatch  of  Parry's 
expedition  in  the  Hecla  and  Griper  which  left  Yar- 
mouth on  the  12th  of  May,  1819,  and,  for  the  first  time 
after  leaving  the  coast  of  Norfolk,  dropped  anchor  in 
the  bay  named  after  them  in  Melville  Island,  on  the  5th 
of  September. 

Parry,  before  his  voyage  in  the  Alexander,  had  had 
Arctic  experience  while  lieutenant  of  the  Alexan- 
dria frigate  engaged  in  protecting  the  Spitsbergen 
whale  fisheries,  and  knew  thoroughly  what  he  was 
about.  For  instance,  he  worked  his  crews  in  three 
watches,  and  had  both  his  vessels  rigged  as  barques 


180  THE   PARRY   ISLANDS 

as  the  most  convenient  rig  among  ice,  though  the 
Griper,  a  strong,  slow  gunboat,  was  rather  too  small  to 
be  so  treated,  being  only  about  half  the  tonnage  of  the 
Hecla,  whose  measurement  was  under  four  hundred. 
Had  she  been  a  little  speedier  more  work  might  have 
been  done  ;  but  what  was  done  was  magnificent. 

Entering  Lancaster  Sound,  Parry  found  a  strait  not 
blocked  by  mountains  but  thirty  miles  broad  leading 
into  a  region  up  to  then  unknown,  except — so  it  is  said 
— to  the  Norsemen.  On  the  12th  of  August  Prince 
Regent  Inlet  was  discovered  and  named,  it  being 
George  IVs  birthday.  Then  North  Somerset  was 
sighted  and  the  course  laid  across  Barrow  Strait  to 
North  Devon  and  its  south-western  peninsula  known 
as  Beechey  Island ;  then  Wellington  Channel  was  des- 
cried, and  then  Cornwallis  Island.  Griffith  Island  was 
discovered  on  the  23rd  of  August,  Bathurst  Island  on 
the  25th,  Byam  Martin  Island  on  the  27th,  where 
Sabine,  the  astronomer  of  the  expedition,  found  they 
had  passed  north  of  the  magnetic  north  pole.  Then 
the  south  side  of  Melville  Island  was  coasted  along, 
Dealy  Island  being  found  on  the  4th  of  September  at 
noon,  and,  at  a  quarter  past  nine  at  night,  just  after 
passing  Bounty  Cape  (named  in  honour  of  the  event), 
the  Heda  crossed  the  110th  meridian  west,  and 
became  entitled  to  the  Government  grant  of  £5000  for 
doing  so — which  Parry  shared  between  the  ships. 

Soon  the  ice  became  difficult  and  the  ships  had  to 
anchor,  but,  the  conditions  improving,  the  westerly 
voyage  was  resumed.  Cape  Providence  was  passed  and 
Cape  Hay  sighted,  but  the  ships  could  get  no  further 
than  about  half-way  between  these  capes,  and  they  had 


PARRY   IN   WINTER  QUARTERS  181 

to  return  to  Winter  Harbour,  where,  on  the  26th  of 
September,  they  were  warped  to  their  quarters  through 
a  channel  cut  in  the  ice.  The  Heda,  sending  down  all 
her  upper  masts  except  the  main  topmast,  and  the 
Griper,  housing  her  fore  and  main  topmasts,  used  the 
spars  to  support  a  roof  which  completely  enclosed  their 
upper  decks  and  made  them  both  snug  for  the  winter, 
which  did  not  seem  so  long  owing  to  the  efforts  of  the 
officers  to  keep  every  one  amused  and  on  the  move. 
Parry,  a  host  in  himself,  was  well  seconded  by  his 
lieutenant,  Beechey,  late  of  the  Trent,  James  Clark 
Ross,  one  of  his  midshipmen,  Captain  Sabine,  and 
Lieutenant  Liddon,  the  commander  of  the  Griper,  who 
was  almost  disabled  with  rheumatism,  and  Lieutenant 
Hoppner,  also  of  the  Griper.  A  couple  of  books  of 
plays  on  board  proved  a  real  treasure ;  owing  to  them 
the  Royal  Arctic  Theatre  was  started,  the  pioneer  of  so 
many  amateur  theatrical  ventures  in  the  Polar  seas, 
and  the  North  Georgia  Gazette  and  Winter  Chronicle 
came  into  existence,  the  first  of  ship  newspapers.  On 
Christmas  Day  there  was  a  dinner  of  roast  beef  which 
had  been  on  board  since  May,  the  condition  of 
which,  as  Parry  said,  was  an  excellent  testimony  to  the 
antiseptic  properties  of  a  cold  atmosphere ;  and  the 
food  generally  was  good  and  abundant,  and  the  manage- 
ment and  supplies  far  better  than  on  many  subsequent 
expeditions.  In  the  spring,  game  was  found  in  fair 
quantity,  nearly  four  thousand  pounds  of  musk  ox, 
deer,  hares,  geese,  ducks,  and  ptarmigan  being  brought 
on  board. 

In  May  the  vessels  were  afloat  again,  though  ice- 
bound, and,  in  June,  walking,  not  sledging,  journeys 


182  THE   PARRY   ISLANDS 

were  organised,  the  furthest  points  reached  being  Cape 
Fisher  to  the  north  and  Cape  Hoppner  to  the  west. 
On  the  1st  of  August  the  vessels  moved  out  of  the 
bay  to  the  westward,  and  six  days  afterwards  Beechey 
called  attention  to  the  land  with  the  three  capes  already 
mentioned.  "The  land,"  says  Parry,  "which  extends 
beyond  the  117th  degree  of  west  longitude,  and  is  the 
most  western  yet  discovered  in  the  Polar  Sea  to  the 
north  of  the  American  continent,  was  honoured  with 
the  name  of  Banks  Land  out  of  respect  to  the  late 
venerable  and  worthy  President  of  the  Royal  Society." 

On  the  16th  Cape  Dundas  was  named,  but  progress 
was  impossible.  For  a  week  Parry  made  every  en- 
deavour to  pass,  but  the  floes,  forty  to  fifty  feet  thick, 
heaped  up  by  the  tides  from  the  east  and  the  west  so 
as  to  form  a  wide-stretching  landscape  of  hill  and  dale, 
barred  the  way  right  across  Banks  Strait ;  and  no 
further  west  could  be  attained  than  113°  46'  43'5",  in 
latitude  74°  26'  25".  Thence  Parry  returned,  hoping 
to  get  through  on  another  voyage,  and  bidding  farewell 
to  the  North  Georgian  Islands,  as  he  called  them,  or 
the  Parry  Islands,  as  we  now  know  them,  he  came 
home  by  the  way  he  went  out,  through  Lancaster 
Sound.  Needless  to  say,  the  very  next  season  the 
whalers  followed  on  Parry's  track,  and  Lancaster 
Sound  became  the  highway  to  a  very  profitable  fishing- 
ground. 

Among  the  Parry  Islands  in  1851  were  several 
vessels  in  search  of  Franklin.  Sir  John  Ross,  aged 
seventy-four,  was  there  in  the  schooner-yacht  Felix  on 
a  private  expedition  chiefly  memorable  for  the  story 
of  his  having  sent  off'  a  carrier  pigeon  from  his  winter 


SEARCHING  FOR  FRANKLIN  183 

quarters  at  Cornwallis  Island,  which  reached  his  home 
— North- West  Castle,  Stranraer,  Wigtownshire — three 
thousand  miles  away,  in  five  days.  Lady  Franklin's 
vessel,  the  Prince  Albert,  was  there,  with  Captain 
Forsyth  and  Parker  Snow  on  board,  an  old  fruit 
schooner,  and  therefore  the  speediest  sailing  -  craft 
among  the  crowd.  The  Grinnell  expedition  of  the 
two  American  brigs,  Advance  and  Racer,  under  De 
Haven,  was  also  there,  to  drift  afterwards  up  Welling- 
ton Channel  and  down  again  back  into  Baffin  Bay; 
as  was  a  British  Government  expedition  of  the  two 
whaling  brigs,  Lady  Franklin  and  Sophia,  under  Captain 
William  Penny,  who  was  to  discover  the  sea  open  north 
of  Wellington  Channel.  In  addition  to  these  was  the 
British  squadron  under  Captain  Horatio  Austin  in 
H.M.S.  Resolute,  with  H.M.S.  Assistance,  Captain 
Erasmus  Ommanney,  and  the  old  Cattle  Conveyance 
Company's  boats  known  as  H.M.S.  Intrepid,  Lieutenant 
Cator,  and  H.M.S.  Pioneer,  Lieutenant  Sherard  Osborn, 
these  two  being  screw  steamers  used  as  tenders,  which 
proved  of  great  value  as  tugs  and  ice-breakers. 

On  the  23rd  of  August  Captain  Ommanney  found 
Franklin's  winter  quarters  on  Beechey  Island,  and  four 
days  afterwards  Captain  Penny  came  upon  the  grave- 
stones marking  where  the  three  men,  two  of  the 
Erebus  and  one  of  the  Terror,  had  been  buried  in 
1846,  though  nothing  was  discoverable  of  the  route 
intended  to  be  taken  by  the  ships.  The  news  was 
important,  and  the  Prince  Albert,  acting  as  despatch 
vessel,  was  immediately  sent  home  with  it,  to  return 
next  year  with  Kennedy  and  Bellot  to  make  a  dis- 
covery of  her  own.  Soon  Captain  Austin's  four  ships 


184  THE  PARRY  ISLANDS 

departed,  also  to  return  in  the  following  year,  Sir 
Edward  Belcher,  in  the  Assistance,  being  then  in  com- 
mand, Kellett  being  in  the  Resolute,  M'Clintock  in  the 
Intrepid,  and  Sherard  Osborn  again  in  the  Pioneer. 
Belcher's  attempt  ended  in  his  abandoning  his  vessels 
in  the  ice ;  one  of  them,  the  Resolute,  as  though  in 
mute  protest,  drifting  from  74°  41'  for  a  thousand 
miles,  to  be  picked  up  by  Buddington  off  Cape  Dyer 
in  Baffin  Bay,  bought  from  him  by  the  American 
Government  and  presented  to  Great  Britain,  refitted 
as  she  used  to  be,  as  a  much-appreciated  token  of  good- 
will. 

The  great  feature  of  these  years  was  the  wonderful 
sledge  work ;  by  it  mainly  the  northern  coasts  of  the 
islands  discovered  by  Parry  were  surveyed  and  other 
islands  added  to  the  archipelago,  including  the  western- 
most, Prince  Patrick,  named  after  the  Duke  of  Con- 
naught,  who  was  at  first  known  as  Prince  Patrick  instead 
of  Prince  Arthur.  The  sledges  fitted  out  by  Austin 
traversed  1500  miles  of  coast-line,  850  of  which  were  new, 
the  routes  radiating  between  Osborn's  72°  18'  and  Brad- 
ford's 76°  25',  M'Clintock  going  farthest,  760  miles,  to 
114°  20'  in  74°  38'.  Those  next  year  from  Kellett  at 
Dealy  Island  covered  8558  miles,  radiating  from  Pirn's 
74°  6'  (to  rescue  M'Clure)  to  M'Clintock's  77°  23',  a 
run  to  118°  20'  and  back  of  1401  miles,  while  Mecham 
reached  120°  30'  on  a  trip  of  1163  miles ;  and  Belcher 
from  his  winter  quarters  in  Northumberland  Sound,  in 
76°  52',  aided  by  Richards  and  Osborn,  was  almost  as 
busy  further  north. 

Thus  practically  the  whole  belt  of  land  and  sea 
westward  between  and  including  Lancaster  Sound  and 


SVERDRUPS  DISCOVERIES  185 

Jones  Sound  as  far  as  120°  was  searched  and  mapped, 
the  most  northerly  of  the  Parry  Islands  known  up  to 
then  being  Finlay  Island,  North  Cornwall,  and  Graham 
Island.  But  in  1898  Captain  Otto  Sverdrup  went  up 
Smith  Sound  in  his  old  ship  the  Fram  on  an  endeavour 
to  sail  round  the  north  coast  of  Greenland  from  west 
to  east.  He  had  to  winter  in  Rice  Strait,  near  Pirn 
Island,  and  finding,  to  put  it  sportingly,  that  he  was 
to  a  certain  extent  trespassing  on  Peary's  preserves, 
decided  to  devote  his  attention  to  the  unknown  region 
approachable  through  Jones  Sound.  In  1899,  there- 
fore, he  took  the  Fram  up  the  sound,  and,  failing 
to  pass  through  Cardigan  Strait,  spent  the  three 
following  years  among  the  fiords  at  the  north-western 
end. 

From  here  he  sent  his  sledge  and  ski  parties  far  and 
wide,  west  and  south  and  north  over  an  approximate 
area  of  a  hundred  thousand  square  miles.  Long 
stretches  of  coast-line  were  explored  and  named,  in  a 
few  cases  unnecessarily,  though,  strange  to  say,  the 
unnecessary  names  were  all  royal  ones,  King  Oscar 
Land  being  the  west  of  Ellesmere  Land,  Crown  Prince 
Gustav  Sea  and  Prince  Gustav  Adolf  Sea  being  the 
Polar  Ocean,  and  King  Christian  Land  being  simply 
Finlay  Island.  Separated  from  Finlay  Island  by 
Danish  Sound  and  from  North  Cornwall  by  Hendrik- 
sen  Sound,  he  found  two  large  islands,  which — just  as 
John  Ross  named  Boothia  after  his  principal  patron, 
the  distiller — Sverdrup  named  Ellef  Ringnes  and 
Amund  Ringnes  after  two  of  his  supporters,  the 
brewers ;  his  other  discovery,  Axel  Heiberg  Land — 
which  seems  to  be  Peary's  Jesup  Land  sighted  in  1898 


186  THE   PARRY   ISLANDS 

—to  the  west  and  north-west  of  these,  being  so  called 
after  his  other  munificent  patron. 

His  farthest  south  was  Beechey  Island,  his  farthest 
west  Cape  Isachsen  in  Ellef  Ringnes  Land,  his  farthest 
north  Lands  Lokk  in  Grant  Land,  in  latitude  81°  40' 
and  longitude  about  92°,  within  sixty  miles  of  Aldrich's 
farthest  along  the  north-eastern  coast,  the  gap  after- 
wards traversed  by  Peary.  Within  these  limits  the 
amount  of  coast  detail  filled  in  was  remarkable. 
Owing  to  the  favourable  condition  of  the  ice  and  the 
excellent  management  in  all  ways,  the  sledges  fre- 
quently did  their  fifteen  miles  and  more  a  day.  Though 
the  expedition  lost  its  doctor  during  the  first  winter, 
there  was  little  trouble  as  regards  health ;  and  game 
was  in  plenty  right  up  to  the  far  north  where  Hare 
Fiord  tells  of  hares  in  hundreds. 

With  hunting  episodes  the  story  is  pleasantly  varied, 
one  in  particular  being  so  graphically  described  by 
Sverdrup  that  as  a  sample  we  may  be  forgiven  a  rather 
long  quotation.  "  The  bear,"  says  Sverdrup,  "  was 
determined  to  go  up  a  difficult  stony  valley  a  little 
north  of  our  tent,  and,  try  as  the  dogs  would  to 
prevent  it,  up  the  valley  it  went.  Schei  and  I  ran  full 
speed  northward  along  the  ice-foot,  and  soon  heard 
that  the  dogs  had  brought  it  to  bay.  We  made  a  short 
cut  across  some  hills  of  grit,  and,  when  we  reached 
the  top  of  one  of  them,  saw  the  bear  on  the  other  side 
of  the  valley,  sitting  on  a  hill-top,  which  fell  almost 
sheer  away.  But  on  the  north  side  it  was  accessible, 
and  here  it  was  probably  that  the  bear  had  climbed  it. 
There  sat  the  king  of  the  icefields  enthroned  on  a  kind 
of  pedestal,  and  the  whole  staff  of  yelping  dogs  stand- 


A   BEAR  STORY  187 

ing  at  a  respectful  distance.  1  tried  a  couple  of  shots, 
but  overrated  the  distance,  and  the  bullets  went  over 
the  bear's  head.  I  then  told  Schei  to  go  and  shoot  it 
whilst  I  looked  on  at  the  further  development  of  the 
drama.  The  bear's  position  was  a  first-rate  one.  It 
had  taken  its  stand  on  a  little  plateau  high  up  on  a 
mountain  crag;  this  little  ledge  was  reached  by  a 
bridge  not  more  than  a  good  yard  in  width,  and  there 
stood  the  bear,  like  Sven  Dufva,  ready  with  his  sledge- 
hammer to  fell  the  first  being  that  should  venture 
across.  His  majesty  was  not  visible  to  Schei  until  he 
came  within  a  few  feet  of  him,  but  then  it  was  not 
long  before  a  shot  was  heard.  The  bear  sank  to- 
gether, and  a  few  seconds  afterwards  all  the  dogs  had 
thrown  themselves  on  to  it.  They  tugged  and  pulled 
at  the  bear's  coat,  tearing  tufts  of  hair  out  of  it,  and 
before  we  knew  what  they  were  doing,  had  dragged 
the  body  to  the  edge  of  the  plateau,  where  it  shot  out 
over  the  precipice.  The  dogs  stood  amazed,  gazing 
down  into  the  depths  where  the  bear  was  falling  swiftly 
through  the  air — but  not  alone,  for  on  it  as  large  as 
life  were  two  dogs  which  had  clung  so  fast  to  its  hair, 
that  they  now  stood  planted  head  to  head,  and  bit 
themselves  still  faster  to  it  in  order  to  keep  their 
balance.  I  was  breathless  as  I  watched  this  unexpected 
journey  through  the  air.  The  next  moment  the  bear 
in  its  perpendicular  fall  would  reach  the  projecting 
point  of  rock,  and  my  poor  dogs! — it  was  a  cruel 
revenge  the  bear  was  taking  on  them.  I  should  now 
have  only  three  dogs  left  in  my  team.  The  bear's 
body  dashed  violently  against  the  rock,  turned  a 
somersault  out  from  the  mountain  wall  and  fell  still 


188  THE   PARRY    ISLANDS 

further,  until,  after  falling  a  height  of  altogether  at 
least  a  hundred  feet,  it  reached  the  slopes  by  the  river, 
and  was  shot  by  the  impetus  right  across  the  river-ice 
and  a  good  way  up  the  other  side.  And  the  dogs  ? 
When  the  bear  dashed  against  the  mountain  they 
sprang  up  like  rubber  balls,  described  a  large  curve, 
and  with  stiffened  legs  continued  the  journey  on  their 
own  account,  falling  with  a  loud  thud  on  to  the  hardly 
packed  snow  at  the  bottom  of  the  valley.  But  they 
were  on  their  legs  again  in  a  moment,  and  set  off*  as 
fast  as  they  could  go  across  the  river  after  the  bear. 
Not  many  minutes  afterwards  the  whole  pack  came 
running  up,  but  when  they  were  driven  away  from  the 
carcase,  they  lay  down  again  to  await  their  turn.  I 
hurried  back  to  camp  to  fetch  the  dog  harness ;  we 
put  a  lanyard  through  the  nose  of  the  mighty  fallen, 
and  set  off.  The  dogs  knew  well  enough  that  this 
meant  food  for  them,  and  the  nearer  we  came  to  camp 
the  harder  they  pulled.  In  fact,  I  had  to  sit  on  the 
carcase  to  keep  them  back,  and,  jolting  backwards  and 
forwards,  on  this  new  kind  of  conveyance  I  made  my 
entrance  into  camp,  in  the  light  spring  night."  But 
bears  were  few,  compared  with  the  musk  oxen,  which, 
with  the  reindeer  and  hares,  and  with  the  wolves  and 
foxes,  and  stoats  and  lemmings,  seals  and  walruses, 
narwhals  and  white  whales,  represented  the  Arctic 
mammalia. 

The  most  singular  experience  met  with  was  perhaps 
the  sledge  journey  through  the  ice  tunnel  on  the  return 
across  the  Simmons  Peninsula  in  1900.  Descending  a 
valley  which  became  narrower  and  narrower  Sverdrup 
and  Fosheim  began  to  think  it  was  going  to  end  in  a 


THROUGH  THE  ICE  TUNNEL  189 

canyon,  but  without  any  warning  they  were  stopped  by 
a  high  wall  of  ice,  perpendicular  and  inaccessible  to  any 
one  without  wings.  Looking  about,  Sverdrup  found  a 
large  hole  which  proved  to  be  the  beginning  of  a  tunnel 
through  the  glacier.  Through  this  lofty  vault  they 
sped.  From  the  roof  hung  threateningly  above  their 
heads  gigantic  blocks  of  ice,  seamed  and  cleft  and 
glittering  sinisterly;  and  all  around  were  icicles  like 
steel-bright  spears  and  lances  piercing  downwards  on 
them.  Along  the  walls  were  caves  after  caves,  with 
pillars  in  rows  like  giants  in  rank ;  and  over  all  shone  a 
ghostly  whitish  light  which  became  bluish  as  they  went. 
"  1  dared  not  speak,"  says  Sverdrup.  "  It  seemed  to  me 
that  in  doing  so  I  should  be  committing  a  deed  of  dese- 
cration ;  I  felt  like  one  who  has  impiously  broken  into 
something  sacred  which  Nature  had  wished  to  keep 
closed  to  every  mortal  eye.  I  felt  mean  and  con- 
temptible as  I  drove  through  all  this  purity.  The 
sledges  jolted  from  block  to  block,  awakening  thunder- 
ous echoes  in  their  passage :  and  it  seemed  as  if  all  the 
spirits  of  the  ice  had  been  aroused  and  called  to  arms 
against  the  intruders  on  their  church-like  peace." 


CHAPTER   X 
BOOTHIA 

Christopher  Middleton — Wager  River — Repulse  Bay — Parry's  second  north- 
west voyage — Melville  Peninsula — Fury  and  Hecla  Strait — John  Ross's 
second  Arctic  voyage — Introduces  steam  navigation  into  the  Arctic  regions 
— The  whaler  John — Ross  misses  the  North-West  Passage — Snow  houses — 
Eskimo  geographers — James  Clark  Ross  finds  the  Magnetic  North  Pole — 
Lyon  in  the  Griper — Back  in  the  Terror — Rae's  journey  round  Committee 
Bay — Sir  John  Franklin's  last  voyage — Kennedy  and  Bellot — Discovery 
of  Bellot  Strait — Rae's  journey  in  1854 — His  Franklin  discoveries — 
M'Clintock's  voyage  in  the  Fox — Lady  Franklin's  instructions — Captain 
Charles  Hall — Frederick  Schwatka — Amundsen  accomplishes  the  North- 
West  Passage. 

IN  July,  1742,  Christopher  Middleton,  working 
northwards  in  Hudson  Bay  from  Fort  Churchill, 
made  his  way  up  Howe's  Welcome  and  entered  a  deep 
inlet  apparently  leading  to  the  South  Sea.  Middleton 
— who  gained  his  Fellowship  of  the  Royal  Society  for 
his  variation  observations  at  Fort  Churchill,  and  was 
the  first  to  practise  the  modern  method  of  finding 
longitude  by  eight  or  ten  different  altitudes  of  the  sun 
or  stars  when  near  the  prime  vertical — spent  eighteen 
days  in  the  inlet  observing  the  tides,  and  then  came  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  was  an  estuary ;  and  he  named 
it  Wager  River  after  Sir  Charles  Wager,  who  was  First 
Lord  of  the  Admiralty  when  he  began  his  voyage. 
Proceeding  north,  he  reached  his  Repulse  Bay,  and  at 
the  north-east  end  of  it  saw  Frozen  Strait,  as  he  called 
it,  stretching  away  along  the  north  of  Southampton 

190 


PARRY'S  SECOND  NORTH-WEST  VOYAGE  191 
Island  towards  Cape  Comfort.  Here,  also  from  tidal 
observations,  he  satisfied  himself  that  Repulse  Bay 
afforded  no  passage  to  the  westward  and  that  Frozen 
Strait  led  into  Fox  Channel. 

His  opinions  were  disputed  by  those  who  only  knew 
the  coast  from  his  chart,  and  two  vessels  were  sent  out 
to  prove  he  was  wrong.  The  reports  of  the  captains 
of  these — there  is  no  need  to  mention  their  names — 
were  embarrassing.  Neither  had  been  to  Repulse  Bay, 
but  both  had  been  to  Wager  River,  and  they  agreed 
that  it  was  unmistakably  a  river  and  not  a  strait ;  but 
in  every  other  respect,  even  in  naming  the  places  they 
had  seen,  they  were  at  variance.  Thus  the  matter  was 
left  in  sufficient  doubt  to  encourage  some  people  in 
believing  in  a  north-west  passage  through  Repulse  Bay, 
just  at  the  Arctic  Circle,  and  to  seek  this,  Parry,  on 
his  return  from  Melville  Island,  was  despatched  on  his 
second  voyage. 

This  time  the  Hecla  was  commanded  by  George 
Francis  Lyon — the  North  African  traveller — Parry 
being  in  the  Fury,  a  sister  ship  ;  both  vessels,  at  Parry's 
suggestion,  being  exactly  alike  so  that  their  gear  and 
fittings  were  interchangeable.  They  sailed  from  the 
Little  Nore  on  the  8th  of  May,  1821,  and  going  direct 
up  Frozen  Strait,  with  much  trouble  from  the  ice,  ran 
into  Repulse  Bay  on  the  22nd  of  August.  Here  after 
a  careful  examination  it  was  ascertained  beyond  a  doubt 
that  no  passage  existed  through  to  the  westward. 
"  Thus,"  says  Lyon,  "  the  veracity  of  poor  Middleton, 
as  far  as  regards  this  bay  at  least,  was  now  at  length 
established ;  and  in  looking  down  the  strait  we  had 
passed,  he  was  fully  justified  in  calling  it  a  frozen  strait. 


192  BOOTHIA 

We  were  now  indisputably  on  our  scene  of  future 
action,  the  coast  of  America ;  and  it  only  remained  for 
us  to  follow  minutely  the  line  of  shore  in  continuation 
from  Repulse  Bay." 

During  a  stay  at  Gore  Bay  red  snow  was  brought  off 
to  the  Fury,  its  colour  being  much  fainter  than  that 
found  in  the  Isabella  voyage  at  Crimson  Cliffs  in 
Greenland ;  "  the  appearance  of  the  mass  was  not  un- 
like what  is  called  raspberry  ice,  in  a  far  better  climate, 
where  cold  is  made  subservient  to  luxury."  The  colour- 
ing of  this  is  due  to  one  of  the  Algae,  Protococcus 
nivalis,  and  not  as  Peter  Paterson  said  in  1671 — ninety 
years  before  De  Saussure — to  the  rocks  being  "  full  of 
white,  red,  and  yellow  veins,  like  marble ;  upon  any 
alteration  of  the  weather,  these  stones  sweat,  which, 
together  with  the  rains,  tinges  the  snow  red."  The 
day  on  which  this  snow  was  found,  the  30th  of  August, 
was  so  warm  that  the  party  were  glad  to  pull  off  their 
coats  and  waistcoats.  "The  valleys  were  fertile  in 
grasses  and  moss ;  and  the  fineness  of  the  weather  had 
drawn  forth  a  number  of  butterflies,  spiders,  and  other 
insects,  which  would,  by  their  gay  colours  and  active 
motions,  have  almost  deceived  us  into  an  idea  that  we 
were  not  in  the  Arctic  regions,  had  not  the  Frozen 
Strait,  filled  with  huge  masses  of  moving  ice,  reminded 
us  but  too  forcibly,  that  we  were  in  the  most  dangerous 
of  them." 

Early  in  October  the  ships  took  up  their  quarters  at 
Winter  Island  on  the  coast  of  Melville  Peninsula  in 
66°  32',  and  there,  during  the  cordial  intercourse  with 
the  Eskimos,  Parry  heard  of  the  way  through  further 
north  which  led  him  on  his  release  in  the  following 


PARRY'S  FARTHEST  ON   HIS  THIRD  VOYAGE 


To  face  page  192 


PARRY'S  THIRD  NORTH-WEST  VOYAGE  193 
July  to  discover  Fury  and  Hecla  Strait,  along  which 
the  ships  passed  to  find  their  progress  blocked  by  the 
ice  just  beyond  its  entrance  into  Regent  Inlet.  Return- 
ing through  the  strait,  they  reached  the  island  of  Igloolik 
at  the  eastern  entrance,  and  there  they  passed  the 
winter,  Igloolik  being  an  important  Eskimo  settlement, 
with  four  fixed  places  of  residence  on  it,  to  which  as  the 
season  changes  the  natives  move  in  rotation.  From 
this  island,  as  the  health  of  the  men  did  not  permit  of 
his  venturing  to  spend  another  winter  in  the  ice,  Parry 
retraced  his  route  and  returned  to  England. 

The  ships  dropped  anchor  in  the  Thames  on  Trafalgar 
Day,  1823.  Next  year,  on  the  19th  of  May,  they  were 
off  again  to  the  north  to  seek  a  passage  to  the  west 
down  Prince  Regent  Inlet,  Parry  in  the  Hecla,  Hoppner 
in  the  Fury.  It  was  a  bad  season.  The  ships  were 
late  in  leaving  Baffin  Bay  and  were  hindered  by  new 
ice  in  Lancaster  Sound.  So  far  from  reaching  the 
strait  discovered  two  years  before,  they  could  get  no 
further  south  than  Port  Bowen,  in  73°  12',  where  they 
spent  the  winter  in  a  singularly  barren  part  of  Cockburn 
Land.  Starting  in  July  they  went  down  to  Cresswell 
Bay,  the  ships  being  forced  by  the  weather  and  the  ice 
to  work — as  is  not  unusual  under  such  circumstances — 
in  almost  every  possible  direction  within  every  mile, 
their  track — as  shown  in  the  illustration — being  most 
complicated.  The  end  of  it  all  was  that  the  Fury  was 
wrecked  and  her  stores  carefully  taken  out  and  left,  on 
what  was  named  Fury  Beach,  for  the  use  of  future 
callers  in  want  of  them.  And  the  Hecfa  came  home 
alone. 

Four  years  afterwards  Captain  John  Ross,  anxious 


194  BOOTHIA 

for  further  work  in  the  north,  started  in  search  of  the 
passage  by  the  same  route.  After  some  years  of  effort 
he  had  succeeded  in  organising  an  expedition,  the  ex- 
penses of  which  to  the  amount  of  over  £17,000  were 
borne  by  Felix  Booth,  with  the  exception  of  over  £2000 
added  by  Ross  himself.  It  was  a  memorable  voyage 
in  many  respects,  and  for  one  thing  in  particular  that 
is  frequently  passed  unnoticed.  This  was  the  intro- 
duction of  steam  into  Arctic  navigation.  The  Victory 
was  an  old  Isle  of  Man  packet-boat  of  eighty-five  tons, 
which,  by  raising  her  sides  five  feet,  Ross  increased 
to  one  hundred  and  fifty  tons.  Taking  out  her  old 
paddles,  he  replaced  them  with  a  pair  of  Robertson's 
patents,  hoistable  out  of  water  in  a  minute,  so  as  to 
clear  the  ice.  The  engine  was  also  a  patent,  by  Braith- 
waite  and  Ericsson,  who  built  the  Novelty  that  appeared 
at  Rainhill.  But  neither  Braithwaite  nor  Ericsson  was 
any  happier  in  this  production.  Its  great  feature  was 
the  doing  away  with  the  funnel,  no  flue  being  required 
owing  to  the  fires  being  kept  going  by  artificial  draught 
derived  from  two  bellows  of  unequal  sizes — "the  bellows 
draught,"  in  fact,  like  that  of  the  Novelty  which  broke 
down  in  the  great  locomotive  contest  won  by  the 
Rocket.  Had  not  Ross  been  a  man  of  enterprise  he 
would  never  have  ventured  to  sea  with  such  an  ex- 
perimental arrangement ;  but  he  did,  and  he  suffered 
for  it. 

The  "  execrable  machinery,"  as  he  inadequately 
called  it,  went  wrong  from  the  first.  On  the  way  from 
Galleons  Reach  to  Woolwich,  part  of  it  became  dis- 
placed, causing  a  delay  for  repairs.  At  Woolwich,  Sir 
Byam  Martin,  the  Comptroller  of  the  Navy,  and 


THE   "VICTORY" 


To  face  page  194 


THE   FIRST   ARCTIC   STEAMSHIP  195 

Sir  John  Franklin  went  on  board  and  said  uncompli- 
mentary things  about  it,  as  also  did  the  Duke  of 
Orleans  (afterwards  King  Louis  Philippe)  and  the 
Duke  of  Chartres,  though  the  Frenchmen  were  more 
gentle  in  their  phrases.  From  Woolwich  to  Margate 
this  remarkable  engine,  aided  by  the  sails,  took  the 
Victory  in  just  over  twelve  hours,  the  boiler  leaking  so 
much  that  the  additional  forcing  pump  had  to  be  kept 
working  by  hand  all  the  time.  Passing  the  Lizard,  the 
piston-rod  was  found  to  be  so  much  worn  on  one  side 
by  friction  against  the  guide-wheels  that  a  piece  of  iron 
had  to  be  brazed  on  to  it.  Then  the  keys  of  the  main 
shaft  broke  and  the  substitutes  made  on  board  broke 
one  after  the  other.  "  The  boilers  also  continued  to 
leak,  though  we  had  put  dung  and  potatoes  in  them  by 
Mr.  Ericsson's  directions."  The  air-pump  drew  quan- 
tities of  water ;  the  feeding  pump  was  insufficient  to 
supply  the  boiler.  The  big  bellows  nearly  wore  out ; 
so  did  the  small  one.  Off  the  Mull  of  Galloway  the 
stoker  fell  into  the  machinery  and  had  his  arm  crushed 
and  nearly  severed  above  the  elbow.  Then  the  teeth 
of  the  fly-wheel  of  the  small  bellows  were  shorn  off, 
and  the  boiler  joints  gave  way,  and  the  water,  or 
rather  the  potato  soup,  flowed  out  of  the  furnace 
doors  and  put  out  the  fire. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  the  difficulties  under 
which  Ross  first  used  steam  on  a  voyage  to  the 
northern  seas.  The  list  of  damages  need  not  be  con- 
tinued. Every  constituent  part  of  the  apparatus  gave 
way  in  turn  ;  and  when  the  Victory  became  imprisoned 
for  the  winter,  and  the  engineering  staff  had  some  time 
on  their  hands,  they  employed  it  in  taking  what  was 


196  BOOTHIA 

left  of  the  installation,  piece  by  piece,  out  of  the  ship, 
laying  it  on  the  ice,  and  leaving  it  there. 

Ross  was  to  be  accompanied  by  the  whaler  John,  but 
the  men  mutinied  and  refused  to  start,  so  that  he  went 
on  from  Loch  Ryan  alone.  The  following  year  the 
crew  of  the  John,  then  on  a  whaling  voyage  in  Baffin 
Bay,  again  mutinied,  killed  the  master,  put  the  mate 
adrift  in  a  boat  in  the  manner  of  Henry  Hudson,  and 
lost  the  ship  on  the  western  coast,  where  most  of  them 
were  drowned. 

With  the  Krusenstern,  a  boat  of  eighteen  tons,  in 
tow,  Ross  crossed  the  Atlantic,  sighting  Sanderson's 
Hope  on  the  29th  of  July,  having  left  Scotland  six 
weeks  before.  Early  in  August  he  sailed  through 
Lancaster  Sound,  and,  taking  the  opportunity  of 
removing  his  Croker's  Mountains  to  the  north-east 
corner  of  North  Somerset,  went  down  Prince  Regent 
Inlet  to  Fury  Beach.  After  completing  his  provisions 
for  twenty-seven  months  from  the  stores  left  behind  by 
Parry,  he  crossed  Cresswell  Bay,  passed  Cape  Garry, 
Parry's  farthest  south,  on  the  15th  of  August,  and 
next  day,  Sunday,  "  I  went  on  shore,"  he  says,  "  with 
all  the  officers,  to  take  formal  possession  of  the  new- 
discovered  land  ;  and  at  one  o'clock,  being  a  few  minutes 
after  seven  in  London,  the  colours  were  displayed  with 
the  usual  ceremony,  and  the  health  of  the  King  drunk, 
together  with  that  of  the  founder  of  our  expedition, 
after  whom  the  land  was  named." 

"  From  the  highest  part  of  this  land,  which  was 
upwards  of  a  hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea," 
he  continues,  "  we  had  a  good  view  of  the  bay  and  the 
adjoining  shores,  and  had  the  satisfaction  to  find  that 


JOHN   ROSS   MISSES   BELLOT   STRAIT          197 

the  ice  was  in  motion  and  fast  clearing  away.  We 
therefore  resolved  to  wait  patiently  till  we  could  see 
an  opening ;  and  proceeded  to  the  northern  quarter  of 
this  spot  to  make  some  observations  on  the  dip  of  the 
magnetic  needle.  ...  To  this  place  I  gave  the  name 
Brown  Island,  after  the  amiable  sister  of  Mr.  Booth ; 
the  inlet  was  named  Brentford  Bay,  and  the  islands 
Grimble  Islands."  And  in  his  book  is  a  beautiful  steel 
engraving  by  W.  Chevalier,  "  Taking  Possession. 
Cape  Hussard,  Grimble  Isle,  Brentford  Bay,  Brown's 
Island."  In  short,  Ross  found  the  place,  landed 
on  it,  took  possession  of  it,  named  it  and  sketched 
it.  "The  sketches  from  which  the  drawings  were 
made  were  taken  by  Mr.  Ronald's  invaluable  per- 
spective instrument,  and  therefore  must  be  true  de- 
lineations." 

And  Ross  passed  on,  apparently  quite  pleased  with 
himself.  But  the  Fates  had  again  been  against  him,  for 
this  was  the  very  North- West  Passage  he  had  come 
specially  to  find ;  the  bay,  as  Kennedy  was  to  show, 
being  the  entrance  to  Bellot  Strait  in  which  the  Fox 
was  to  winter  when  on  the  Franklin  search.  He  had 
blundered  along  from  the  island  of  North  Somerset  to 
the  mainland  of  America,  and  passed  unheeded  its 
northernmost  point,  which  M'Clintock  was  to  name 
Cape  Murchison. 

Working  down  the  coast  of  the  newly-named 
Boothia,  the  Victory  reached  Felix  Harbour,  and  there 
she  wintered.  No  Eskimos  were  seen  until  the  9th  of 
January,  when  thirty-one  came  to  the  ship  and  were 
invited  on  board,  a  return  visit  being  paid  next  day  to 
their  village,  which  Ross  named  North  Hendon.  As 


198  BOOTHIA 

this  was  a  typical  Eskimo  snow  camp  we  may  as  well 
copy  his  picture  and  quote  his  description. 

"  The  village  soon  appeared,  consisting  of  twelve 
snow  huts,  erected  at  the  bottom  of  a  little  bight  on 
the  shore,  about  two  miles  and  a  half  from  the  ship. 
They  had  the  appearance  of  inverted  basins,  and  were 
placed  without  any  order ;  each  of  them  having  a  long 
crooked  appendage,  in  which  was  the  passage,  at  the 
entrance  of  which  were  the  women,  with  the  female 
children  and  the  infants.  We  were  soon  invited  to 
visit  these,  for  whom  we  had  prepared  presents  of  glass 
beads  and  needles ;  a  distribution  of  which  soon  drove 
away  the  timidity  which  they  had  displayed  at  our  first 
appearance.  The  passage,  always  long,  and  generally 
crooked,  led  to  the  principal  apartment,  which  was  a 
circular  dome,  being  ten  feet  in  diameter  when  intended 
for  one  family,  and  an  oval  of  fifteen  by  ten  where  it 
lodged  two.  Opposite  the  doorway  there  was  a  bank 
of  snow,  occupying  nearly  a  third  of  the  breadth  of  the 
area,  about  two  feet  and  a  half  high,  level  at  the  top, 
and  covered  by  various  skins,  forming  the  general  bed 
or  sleeping  place  for  the  whole.  At  the  end  of  this  sat 
the  mistress  of  the  house,  opposite  to  the  lamp,  which, 
being  of  moss  and  oil,  as  is  the  universal  custom  in 
these  regions,  gave  a  sufficient  flame  to  supply  both 
light  and  heat ;  so  that  the  apartment  was  perfectly 
comfortable.  Over  the  lamp  was  the  cooking  dish  of 
stone,  containing  the  flesh  of  deer  and  of  seals,  with 
oil ;  and  of  such  provision  there  seemed  no  want. 
Everything  else,  dresses,  implements,  as  well  as  pro- 
visions, lay  about  in  unspeakable  confusion,  showing 
that  order,  at  least,  was  not  in  the  class  of  their  virtues. 


ESKIMO  LISTENING  AT  A  SEAL-HOLE 


To  face  page  198 


HOW  A  SNOW  HOUSE   IS  BUILT  199 

It  was  much  more  interesting  to  us  to  find,  that  among 
this  disorder  there  were  some  fresh  salmon  ;  since,  when 
they  could  find  this  fish,  we  were  sure  that  it  would  also 
furnish  us  with  supplies  which  we  could  not  too  much 
multiply.  On  inquiry,  we  were  informed  that  they 
were  abundant ;  and  we  had,  therefore,  the  prospect  of 
a  new  amusement,  as  well  as  of  a  valuable  market  at 
the  mere  price  of  our  labour." 

A  few  weeks  later  Ross  was  to  see  how  these  houses 
were  built.  "  Four  families,"  he  says,  "  comprising 
fifteen  persons,  passed  the  ship  to  erect  new  huts  about 
half  a  mile  to  the  southward.  They  had  four  heavy- 
laden  sledges,  drawn  each  by  two  or  three  dogs,  but 
proceeded  very  slowly.  We  went  after  them  to  see 
the  process  of  building  the  snow  house,  and  were  sur- 
prised at  their  dexterity  ;  one  man  having  closed  in  his 
roof  within  forty-five  minutes.  A  tent  is  scarcely 
pitched  sooner  than  a  house  is  here  built.  The  whole 
process  is  worth  describing.  Having  ascertained,  by 
the  rod  used  in  examining  seal  holes,  whether  the  snow 
is  sufficiently  deep  and  solid,  they  level  the  intended 
spot  by  a  wooden  shovel,  leaving  beneath  a  solid  mass 
of  snow  not  less  than  three  feet  thick.  Commencing 
then  in  the  centre  of  the  intended  circle,  which  is  ten 
feet  or  more  in  diameter,  different  wedge-shaped  blocks 
are  cut  out,  about  two  feet  long,  and  a  foot  thick  at  the 
outer  part ;  then  trimming  them  accurately  by  the 
knife,  they  proceed  upwards  until  the  courses,  gradually 
inclining  inwards,  terminate  in  a  perfect  dome.  The 
door  being  cut  out  from  the  inside  before  it  is  quite 
closed  serves  to  supply  the  upper  materials.  In  the 
meantime  the  women  are  employed  in  stuffing  the  joints 


200  BOOTHIA 

with  snow,  and  the  boys  in  constructing  kennels  for  the 
dogs.  The  laying  the  snow  sofa  with  skins  and  the  in- 
sertion of  the  ice  window  complete  the  work ;  the 
passage  only  remaining  to  be  added,  as  it  is  after  the 
house  is  finished,  together  with  some  smaller  huts  for 
stores  " — the  design  being  similar  to  that  of  the  yourts 
of  the  Eskimos  of  the  north,  with  a  change  of  material, 
snow  for  stone,  and  ice  instead  of  seal-gut  for  the  window 
over  the  entrance. 

Making  friends  with  the  Eskimos,  and  gaining  a 
great  reputation  by  the  carpenter  fitting  one  of  them 
with  a  wooden  leg,  Ross  obtained  much  valuable  in- 
formation from  them,  particularly  as  to  the  geography 
of  the  district.  Like  all  Arctic  men,  he  was  impressed 
by  their  quickness  in  understanding  maps  and  their 
skill  in  drawing  them  upon  anything,  snow,  paper,  or 
otherwise,  that  lay  handy.  One  of  them,  Ikmallik, 
drew  in  the  ship's  cabin  a  map,  which  he  reprints  in  his 
book,  showing  the  coast-line  of  the  country  south  of 
the  Victory  s  quarters,  with  the  capes,  inlets,  and  islands, 
giving  the  isthmus  of  Boothia  and  Committee  Bay,  and 
Repulse  Bay  on  the  other  side  of  the  Melville  Peninsula, 
which  is  really  wonderful,  for  neither  the  Eskimo,  nor 
Ross,  had  anything  to  copy  from,  it  being  nearly  twenty 
years  before  Rae's  exploration ;  and  the  one  thing  it 
clearly  demonstrated  was  that  there  was  no  waterway 
to  the  westward,  south  of  Felix  Harbour. 

Ross  owed  much  to  Ikmallik,  and  really  a  good  deal 
of  the  time  of  the  expedition  was  spent  in  confirming 
the  statements  of  that  well-informed  man.  The  west 
coast  of  Boothia  was  surveyed  down  to  Bulow  Bay ; 
the  east  side  from  Cape  Nicholas  down  to  Cape  Porter, 


THE   MAGNETIC   NORTH   POLE  201 

including  the  crossing  of  the  upper  part  of  James  Ross 
Strait,  the  discovery  of  Matty  Island  and  the  north- 
east coast  of  King  William  Land  from  Cape  Landon, 
opposite  Cape  Porter — where  Ross,  as  usual,  missed  a 
strait — westward  to  capes  Franklin  and  Jane  Franklin, 
within  sight  of  which  in  the  days  that  were  coming, 
by  one  of  those  remarkable  coincidences  so  frequent  in 
the  north,  the  Erebus  and  Terror  were  to  meet  their 
fate. 

The  one  conspicuous  triumph  of  the  expedition  was 
the  journey  of  James  Ross  to  the  site  of  the  Magnetic 
North  Pole,  which  he  found  on  the  western  coast  of 
Boothia  on  the  1st  of  June,  1831.  In  the  younger 
Ross's  own  words,  "  the  land  at  this  place  is  very  low 
near  the  coast,  but  it  rises  into  ridges  of  fifty  or  sixty 
feet  high  about  a  mile  inland.  We  could  have  wished 
that  a  place  so  important  had  possessed  more  of  mark 
or  note.  It  was  scarcely  censurable  to  regret  that  there 
was  not  a  mountain  to  indicate  a  spot  to  which  so 
much  of  interest  must  ever  be  attached ;  and  I  could 
even  have  pardoned  any  one  among  us  who  had  been 
so  romantic  or  absurd  as  to  expect  that  the  magnetic 
pole  was  an  object  as  conspicuous  and  mysterious  as 
the  fabled  mountain  of  Sinbad,  that  it  even  was  a 
mountain  of  iron,  or  a  magnet  as  large  as  Mont  Blanc. 
But  Nature  had  here  erected  no  monument  to  denote 
the  spot  which  she  had  chosen  as  the  centre  of  one  of 
her  great  and  dark  powers ;  and  where  we  could  do 
little  ourselves  towards  this  end,  it  was  our  business  to 
submit,  and  to  be  content  in  noting  by  mathematical 
numbers  and  signs,  as  with  things  of  far  more  import- 
ance in  the  terrestrial  system,  what  we  could  but  ill 


202  BOOTHIA 

distinguish  in  any  other  manner.  .  .  .  We  fixed  the 
British  flag  on  the  spot  and  took  possession  of  the 
North  Magnetic  Pole  and  its  adjoining  territory  in 
the  name  of  Great  Britain  and  King  William  the 
Fourth.  We  had  abundance  of  materials  for  building, 
in  the  fragments  of  limestone  that  covered  the  beach ; 
and  we  therefore  erected  a  cairn  of  some  magnitude, 
under  which  we  buried  a  canister  containing  a  record 
of  the  interesting  fact ;  only  regretting  that  we  had  not 
the  means  of  constructing  a  pyramid  of  more  import- 
ance and  of  strength  sufficient  to  withstand  the  assaults 
of  time  and  of  the  Eskimos.  Had  it  been  a  pyramid 
as  large  as  that  of  Cheops,  I  am  not  quite  sure  that  it 
would  have  done  more  than  satisfy  our  ambition,  under 
the  feelings  of  that  exciting  day.  The  latitude  of  this 
spot  is  70°  5'  17",  and  its  longitude  96°  46'  45"  west." 

The  Victory  in  the  short  summer  of  1 830  sailed  a  few 
miles  further  south  and  spent  the  winter  in  Victoria 
Harbour,  to  be  there  abandoned  in  May,  1832.  Ross 
in  his  boats  made  for  Fury  Beach,  where,  at  Somerset 
House,  as  he  called  it,  he  passed  the  following  winter. 
On  the  26th  of  August,  1833,  when  in  his  boats  off  the 
eastern  mouth  of  Lancaster  Sound,  he  was  picked  up 
by  the  Isabella,  his  old  ship,  and  in  her  he  reached  the 
Humber  in  October  of  that  year  after  four  successive 
winters  in  the  ice,  having  been  enabled  to  make  so  long 
a  stay  by  his  fortunate  find  of  the  stores  left  by  Parry. 

In  1824  Captain  Lyon  was  sent  out  in  the  Griper  to 
winter  at  Repulse  Bay,  and  thence  crossing  the  isthmus 
described  by  the  Eskimos  continue  along  to  Franklin's 
Point  Turnagain ;  but  the  Griper  was  nearly  wrecked 
in  Rowe's  Welcome  and  did  not  reach  Wager  River. 


H.M.S.    "TERROR"   LIFTED   BY   ICE 


To  face  page  202 


VOYAGE   OF  THE   "TERROR"  203 

The  discoveries  of  Ross  led  to  the  renewal  of  this 
attempt  by  Captain  Back  in  the  Terror  in  1836.  He 
was  to  go  to  Wager  River  or  Repulse  Bay,  and  then 
make  his  way  into  Prince  Regent  Inlet,  and  so  west ; 
but  he  became  imprisoned  in  the  ice  off  Cape  Comfort 
during  one  of  the  severest  winters  known.  Drifting  up 
Frozen  Strait  amid  most  perilous  experiences,  the  ship, 
lifted  high  above  sea-level  by  pressure,  lay  at  times 
almost  horizontal.  Once  "  they  beheld,"  he  says,  "  the 
strange  and  appalling  spectacle  of  what  may  be  fitly 
termed  a  submerged  berg,  fixed  low  down,  with  one 
end  to  the  ship's  side,  while  the  other,  with  the  purchase 
of  a  long  lever  advantageously  placed  at  a  right  angle 
with  the  keel,  was  slowly  rising  towards  the  surface. 
Meanwhile,  those  who  happened  to  be  below,  finding 
everything  falling,  rushed  or  clambered  on  deck,  where 
they  saw  the  ship  on  her  beam-ends,  with  the  lee  boats 
touching  the  water,  and  felt  that  a  few  moments  only 
trembled  between  them  and  eternity." 

Day  after  day  the  Terror  defied  the  persistent  effort 
of  the  ice  to  smash  her,  but  suffering  much  in  almost 
every  timber  she  withstood  it  sufficiently  to  keep 
together.  For  four  months  she  was  entirely  out  of 
water,  and  when  at  last  she  was  free,  Back  wrapped 
her  up  as  best  he  could,  and  brought  her  home  with 
the  water  pouring  into  her  so  that  the  men  were  so 
wearied  out  that  they  could  hardly  have  continued  at 
the  pumps  another  day ;  and  he  ran  her  ashore  in 
Lough  S willy  only  just  in  time.  Upwards  of  twenty 
feet  of  her  keel,  together  with  ten  feet  of  the  sternpost, 
were  driven  over  more  than  three  and  a  half  feet  on 
one  side,  leaving  a  frightful  opening  astern  for  the  free 


204  BOOTHIA 

ingress  of  water.  The  forefoot  was  entirely  gone ; 
numbers  of  bolts  were  either  loosened  or  broken ;  and 
when,  besides  this,  the  strained  and  twisted  state  of  the 
ship's  frame  was  considered,  there  was  not  one  on  board 
who  did  not  express  astonishment  that  they  had  ever 
floated  across  the  Atlantic. 

The  next  attempt  to  complete  the  coast  of  the 
American  mainland  was  made  from  the  land,  and  at 
the  cost  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  Really  it  was 
the  expedition  proposed  by  Simpson  some  five  years 
before,  of  which  he  would  have  been  the  leader  had  he 
not  been  shot;  and  it  was  entrusted  to  the  capable 
hands  of  Dr.  John  Rae. 

After  wintering  at  York  Factory,  Rae  reached 
Repulse  Bay  with  two  boats,  the  Magnet  and  North 
Pole,  on  the  25th  of  July,  1846,  and  in  his  usual  style 
started  immediately  across  the  chain  of  lakes  and 
portages  which  make  up  the  isthmus  that  now  bears 
his  name,  launching  his  boats  in  the  tidal  water  of 
Committee  Bay  on  the  1st  of  August.  Stopped  by 
ice  on  the  west  side  and  then  on  the  east  he  returned 
to  Repulse  Bay,  where  he  built  Fort  Hope  of  stones 
and  roofed  it  with  sails,  and  lived  in  it  through  the 
winter  on  what  he  could  shoot  and  catch,  for  many 
weeks  venturing  on  only  one  meal  a  day.  Outside  the 
men  kept  themselves  warm  chiefly  by  building  snow 
houses  and  playing  football ;  inside,  as  the  only  fuel 
used  was  for  cooking,  the  only  thing  they  could  do  was 
to  wrap  themselves  in  furs,  and  trust  to  their  natural 
heat  in  a  temperature  that  ranged  about  zero. 

In  April,  with  a  couple  of  sledges,  eight  dogs,  and 
five  men,  he  crossed  the  isthmus  again  and  went  straight- 


FRACTURED   STERN-POST  OF   H.M.S.   "TERROR 


To  face  page  204 


FRANKLIN'S   LAST   VOYAGE  205 

away  up  the  east  side  of  Boothia  to  Ross's  farthest 
south,  thus  completing  that  coast-line.  Back  he  went 
to  Fort  Hope  after  a  trip  of  nearly  six  hundred  miles, 
to  start  again  on  the  12th  of  May  up  the  west  coast  of 
the  Melville  Peninsula  to  Cape  Ellice,  which  Parry  had 
sighted  from  the  strait  on  that  side.  And  he  was  back 
once  more  at  Fort  Hope  on  the  9th  of  June.  Thus 
the  survey  of  the  northern  coast  was  complete  with 
the  exception  of  the  gap  between  the  Boothia  isthmus, 
on  the  west  side,  and  Castor  and  Pollux  River  of  Dease 
and  Simpson,  which  Rae  in  another  famous  effort  from 
Repulse  Bay  was  to  link  up  later  on. 

When  Rae  reached  Lord  Mayor's  Bay  on  the  east 
coast  of  Boothia,  Franklin,  with  the  Erebus  and 
Terror,  was  off  its  west  coast  in  the  same  latitude. 
This  was  the  reappearance  of  the  Terror  in  the  north. 
After  Back's  voyage  she  had  been  repaired  to  sail  with 
the  Erebus,  under  Sir  James  Clark  Ross,  when  he  dis- 
covered the  South  Magnetic  Pole ;  and  on  their  return 
the  barques  had  been  thoroughly  overhauled  and  fitted 
with  auxiliary  screws,  the  first  time  that  the  screw 
propeller  was  used  in  Arctic  work.  Franklin  was  in  the 
Erebus,  the  Terror  being  commanded  by  Francis  R.  M. 
Crozier  as  she  had  been  in  the  Antarctic  voyage. 
Crozier  was  one  of  Parry's  men,  he  having  been  in  the 
Fury  in  1821  and  in  the  Hecla  on  her  two  subsequent 
expeditions. 

The  ships  left  England  on  the  19th  of  May,  1845, 
and  were  last  seen  and  spoken  with  on  the  26th  of 
July  in  Melville  Bay  on  their  way  to  Lancaster  Sound. 
According  to  information  gained  during  the  long  series 
of  searches,  they  passed  through  the  sound  and  went 


206  BOOTHIA 

north  for  about  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  to  77°,  up 
Wellington  Channel  into  Penny  Strait — the  first  time 
the  passage  had  been  made.  Returning  down  the  west 
side  of  Cornwallis  Island,  discovering  the  strait  between 
it  and  Bathurst  Island,  they  wintered  at  Beechey  Island, 
where  three  of  the  men  died  and  were  buried ;  and  where 
the  most  significant  relic  was  about  seven  hundred  tins 
of  preserved  meat  that  seemed  to  have  been  condemned 
as  bad,  just  as  the  stock  of  similar  stuff  had  in  the 
same  year  been  condemned  and  thrown  overboard  at 
Portsmouth. 

Leaving  Beechey  Island  in  1846,  they  went  south 
down  Peel  Sound,  being  the  first  to  pass  through  it, 
and  Franklin  Strait — another  new  discovery — to  within 
twelve  miles  of  Cape  Felix  in  King  William  Land, 
where,  on  the  12th  of  September,  they  were  beset 
about  half-way  between  Cape  Adelaide  in  Boothia  and 
Pelly  Point  in  Victoria  Land.  Hereabouts  the  second 
winter  was  passed,  and  on  the  24th  of  May  a  party 
under  Lieutenant  Gore  crossed  the  ice  to  Point  Victory, 
probably  on  a  journey  to  examine  the  unknown  coast 
between  there  and  Cape  Herschel.  On  the  llth  of  June, 
1847,  Sir  John  Franklin  died.  The  ships  drifted  a  short 
distance  during  their  imprisonment  in  the  ice,  and  the 
third  winter  was  passed  some  twenty  miles  further  south 
down  Victoria  Strait,  where,  on  the  22nd  of  April,  1848, 
when  fifteen  miles  north-north-west  of  Point  Victory, 
they  were  abandoned,  and  the  officers  and  crews,  a 
hundred  and  five  in  all,  under  Crozier's  command,  started 
for  Back's  Great  Fish  River,  some  of  them  completing 
the  first  North-West  Passage  in  crossing  Simpson  Strait 
and  reaching  Montreal  Island. 


KENNEDY   AND   BELLOT  207 

The  first  undoubted  traces  of  the  lost  expedition  were 
those  discovered  at  Beechey  Island,  the  news  reaching 
England  in  the  Prince  Albert  in  the  autumn  of  1850. 
As  soon  as  the  winter  was  over  this  excellent  little 
schooner  was  again  sent  out  by  Lady  Franklin  under 
the  command  of  Captain  William  Kennedy,  who  took 
with  him  as  a  volunteer  Lieutenant  Joseph  Rene  Bellot 
of  the  French  navy,  and  also  John  Hepburn,  who  had 
been  with  Franklin  on  the  land  journey  in  1819. 
Kennedy  wintered  at  Batty  Bay  in  North  Somerset, 
and  during  a  remarkable  sledge  journey,  in  which  he 
made  the  circuit  of  the  island,  he  and  Bellot  reached 
Brentford  Bay,  and,  on  the  21st  of  April,  1852,  dis- 
covered the  strait  named  after  the  gallant  Frenchman. 
But  he  found  no  traces  of  the  expedition  through  turn- 
ing to  the  north  and  crossing  to  Prince  of  Wales  Island, 
instead  of  going  to  the  south  at  the  western  mouth  of 
the  strait.  He  had,  however,  discovered  the  termina- 
tion of  Boothia,  the  north  point  of  the  American  conti- 
nent which  men  had  been  seeking  for  three  centuries. 

To  the  southern  end  of  Boothia  came  the  inde- 
fatigable Rae.  That  cheery  hero  of  the  north  left 
Repulse  Bay  on  the  31st  of  March,  1854,  to  complete 
the  Hudson's  Bay  Company's  survey.  On  the  20th  of 
April  he  met  a  young  Eskimo  in  Felly  Bay,  who  told 
him  the  fate  of  the  Erebus  and  Terror,  and  from  him 
and  his  people  Rae  obtained  a  number  of  small  articles, 
forks  and  spoons  and  so  forth,  which  had  undoubtedly 
come  from  the  ships,  one  of  which  had  been  crushed  in 
the  ice,  the  other  sinking  after  drifting  further  south. 

Rae  was  not  the  man  to  return  until  he  had  attacked 
the  work  he  had  set  out  to  do,  and  he  continued  his 


208  BOOTHIA 

surveying  with  his  customary  accuracy,  despatch,  and 
general  alertness,  striking  across  the  peninsula,  dis- 
covering the  Murchison  River,  reaching  Simpson's 
farthest  at  Castor  and  Pollux  River,  and  thence  proving 
the  insularity  of  King  William  Land  by  travelling  up 
the  east  coast  of  the  strait  now  named  after  him — and 
he  was  back  again  in  August.  He  had  almost  finished 
the  survey  of  the  northern  coast-line ;  and  he  had 
ascertained  how  and  where  Franklin's  voyage  had 
ended,  for  which  discovery  the  British  Government  gave 
him  the  reward  of  £10,000,  letting  it  be  understood 
that  so  far  as  they  were  concerned  the  Franklin  searches 
were  at  an  end. 

But  Lady  Franklin  thought  one  more  effort  should 
be  made  to  unravel  the  mystery  of  her  husband's  fate, 
and  there  were  many  who  thought  the  same.  Helped 
to  a  certain  extent  by  a  public  subscription,  she  organ- 
ised another  expedition.  The  steam-yacht  Fox  was 
bought  from  the  executors  of  Sir  Richard  Sutton  and 
altered  for  Arctic  work  by  her  builders,  the  Halls  of 
Aberdeen  clipper  fame.  As  leader  went  Captain,  after- 
wards Sir,  Frederick  Leopold  M'Clintock,  who  had 
done  such  brilliant  sledge-work  in  the  north ;  like  his 
second  in  command,  Lieutenant  W.  R.  Hobson,  he 
gave  his  services  gratuitously,  as  also  did  Dr.  David 
Walker  and  Captain,  afterwards  Sir,  Allen  Young, 
then  of  the  Mercantile  Marine,  who  also  subscribed 
£500  towards  the  fund.  Carl  Petersen,  the  Eskimo 
interpreter  on  the  voyages  of  Penny  and  Kane,  came 
to  join  from  Copenhagen,  having  landed  there  from 
Greenland  only  six  days  previously.  The  British 
Government,  although  declining  to  send  out  an  expedi- 


LADY   FRANKLIN'S   INSTRUCTIONS  209 

tion,  contributed  liberally  to  the  supplies,  and  sent  on 
board  all  the  arms  and  ammunition  and  ice-gear  and 
every  instrument  that  was  asked  for. 

Lady  Franklin's  instructions  were  so  characteristic  of 
the  noble-hearted  woman  whose  name  can  never  be  for- 
gotten in  Arctic  story  that  they  must  be  given  in  full : — 

"  ABERDEEN,  June  29,  1857. 
"  MY  DEAR  CAPTAIN  M'CLINTOCK, 

"You  have  kindly  invited  me  to  give  you 
'  Instructions/  but  I  cannot  bring  myself  to  feel  that  it 
would  be  right  in  me  in  any  way  to  influence  your  judg- 
ment in  the  conduct  of  your  noble  undertaking ;  and 
indeed  I  have  no  temptation  to  do  so,  since  it  appears 
to  me  that  your  views  are  almost  identical  with  those 
which  I  had  independently  formed  before  I  had  the 
advantage  of  being  thoroughly  possessed  of  yours. 
But  had  this  been  otherwise,  I  trust  you  would  have 
found  me  ready  to  prove  the  implicit  confidence  I  place 
in  you  by  yielding  my  own  views  to  your  more  en- 
lightened judgment ;  knowing  too  as  I  do  that  your 
whole  heart  also  is  in  the  cause,  even  as  my  own  is.  As 
to  the  objects  of  the  expedition  and  their  relative  im- 
portance, I  am  sure  that  you  know  that  the  rescue  of 
any  possible  survivor  of  the  Erebus  and  Terror  would 
be  to  me,  as  it  would  be  to  you,  the  noblest  result  of 
our  efforts. 

"  To  this  object  I  wish  every  other  to  be  subordinate  ; 
and  next  to  it  in  importance  is  the  recovery  of  the  un- 
speakably precious  documents  of  the  expedition,  public 
and  private,  and  the  personal  relics  of  my  dear  husband 
and  his  companions. 

"  And  lastly,  I  trust  it  may  be  in  your  power  to  con- 
firm, directly  or  inferentially,  the  claims  of  my 


210  BOOTHIA 

husband's  expedition  to  the  earliest  discovery  of  the 
passage,  which,  if  Dr.  Rae's  report  be  true  (and  the 
Government  of  our  country  has  accepted  and  rewarded 
it  as  such),  these  martyrs  in  a  noble  cause  achieved  at 
their  last  extremity,  after  five  long  years  of  labour  and 
suffering,  if  not  at  an  earlier  period. 

"  I  am  sure  that  you  will  do  all  that  man  can  do  for 
the  attainment  of  all  these  objects ;  my  only  fear  is 
that  you  may  spend  yourselves  too  much  in  the  effort ; 
and  you  must  therefore  let  me  tell  you  how  much 
dearer  to  me  even  than  any  of  them  is  the  preservation 
of  the  valuable  lives  of  the  little  band  of  heroes  who 
are  your  companions  and  followers. 

"May  God  in  His  great  mercy  preserve  you  all  from 
harm  amidst  the  labours  and  perils  which  await  you, 
and  restore  you  to  us  in  health  and  safety  as  well  as 
honour.  As  to  the  honour  I  can  have  no  misgiving. 
It  will  be  yours  as  much  if  you  fail  (since  you  may  fail 
in  spite  of  every  effort)  as  if  you  succeed ;  and  be 
assured  that,  under  any  and  all  circumstances  whatever, 
such  is  my  unbounded  confidence  in  you,  you  will 
possess  and  be  entitled  to  the  enduring  gratitude  of 
your  sincere  and  attached  friend, 

".JANE  FRANKLIN." 

The  men  of  the  Fox  were  worthy  of  the  confidence 
placed  in  them.  Leaving  Aberdeen  on  the  1st  of  July, 
M'Clintock  reached  Disco  on  the  last  day  of  the  month, 
and,  proceeding  northwards,  was,  by  a  perverse  freak  of 
fortune,  beset  in  Melville  Bay  on  the  8th  of  August, 
and  kept  imprisoned  thence  onwards  all  through  the 
winter,  drifting  south  through  Baffin  Bay  and  Davis 
Strait.  On  the  26th  of  April,  1858,  after  a  drift  of 
1194  geographical  miles,  the  Fox  escaped  from  the 


PORT  KENNEDY 
pack  and  steamed  to  the  eastward  amid  the  most 
perilous  of  ice  experiences.  Most  men  would  have 
returned  and  tried  again ;  not  so  M'Clintock.  He 
boldly  ran  up  the  Greenland  coast  as  if  nothing  had 
happened  and,  making  good  deficiencies,  resumed  his 
voyage.  Soon  after  leaving  Sanderson's  Hope  the 
Fox  was  nearly  wrecked  near  Buchan  Island,  remain- 
ing on  a  rock  until  the  tide  rose  again  to  set  her  free. 
After  calling  at  Beechey  Island,  M'Clintock  followed 
Franklin's  track  down  Peel  Sound  until  stopped  by  the 
pack,  when  he  retraced  his  course  and  tried  Prince 
Regent  Inlet,  reaching  Bellot  Strait  on  the  21st  of 
August.  At  Port  Kennedy  in  this  famous  waterway — 
which  is  like  a  Greenland  fiord,  about  twenty  miles  long 
and  scarcely  a  mile  wide  at  its  narrowest  part,  the  water 
four  hundred  feet  deep  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of 
its  northern  shore — he  passed  the  winter. 

On  the  1st  of  March  he  reached  by  sledge  the  Magnetic 
Pole  and  fell  in  with  four  of  the  Boothian  Eskimos, 
who,  at  the  cost  of  a  needle  each,  built  him  a  snow  hut 
in  an  hour,  in  which  they  all  spent  the  night.  "  Per- 
haps," says  M'Clintock,  "  the  records  of  architecture  do 
not  furnish  another  instance  of  a  dwelling-house  so 
cheaply  constructed !  "  Halting  at  Cape  Victoria  the 
Eskimos  came  up  from  their  village  close  by  with  a 
number  of  small  relics  of  the  lost  expedition.  Return- 
ing to  the  Fooo  after  a  journey  of  four  hundred  and 
twenty  statute  miles  in  which  the  survey  of  the  west 
coast  of  Boothia  was  completed,  everything  was  made 
ready  for  three  long  sledge  journeys  of  two  sledges  each, 
the  captain  taking  that  for  Montreal  Island,  and  giving 
Hobson  the  best  chance  of  promotion  by  sending  him 


212  BOOTHIA 

round  the  west  coast  of  King  William  Land,  while 
Young  took  the  Prince  of  Wales  Land  route. 

On  the  east  coast  of  King  William  Land  M'Cliiitock 
met  with  more  Eskimos,  from  whom  he  obtained  relics 
and  obtained  information.  Pushing  on,  he  reached 
Montreal  Island  on  the  15th  of  May,  where  the  only 
traces  of  a  boat  were  some  scraps  of  copper  and  an 
iron-hoop  bolt.  A  crossing  to  the  mainland  on  the 
18th  of  May  revealed  no  more ;  and  next  day  the 
return  journey  began.  Six  days  afterwards,  walking 
along  a  gravel  ridge  near  the  beach  on  the  way  to  Cape 
Herschel,  M'Clintock  found  the  first  skeleton,  partly 
exposed,  with  a  few  fragments  of  clothing  appearing 
through  the  snow,  evidently  one  of  the  men  who,  as 
the  old  Eskimo  woman  said,  fell  down  and  died  as  they 
walked  along.  Visiting  Simpson's  cairn  at  Cape  Hers- 
chel and  meeting  with  nothing,  he  went  on  for  about 
twelve  miles,  where  he  caught  sight  of  a  small  cairn 
built  by  Hobson's  party  at  their  furthest  south,  reached 
six  days  before,  containing  a  note  with  the  great  news 
that  at  Point  Victory  they  had  found  what  is  now 
known  as  the  Franklin  record. 

This  record,  which  has  frequently  been  printed — in  a 
smaller  size  than  the  original — was  one  of  the  navy 
bottle-papers  with  the  request  in  six  languages  that 
it  should  be  forwarded  to  the  Admiralty.  A  pale  blue 
paper,  twelve  and  a  half  inches  by  eight,  it  was  filled  up 
in  the  ordinary  way,  and  then  added  to  round  the  four 
margins  in  the  handwriting  of  Lieutenant  Gore,  Captain 
Fitz  James,  and  Captain  Crozier,  and  signed  by  these 
and  C.  F.  Des  Vceux.  It  had  been  first  deposited  four 
miles  away,  so  it  said,  "  by  the  late  Commander  Gore," 


THE  FRANKLIN  RECORD  213 

in  1847,  and  next  year  found  by  Lieutenant  Irving, 
added  to,  and  removed  to  the  new  cairn  on  the  site  of 
Sir  James  Ross's  pillar. 

Brief  as  it  was,  it  contained  all  the  authentic  informa- 
tion regarding  Franklin's  voyage  up  to  the  time  the  ships 
were  abandoned.  Resuming  the  return  journey  along 
the  edge  of  the  strait  where  the  meeting  of  the  Pacific 
and  Atlantic  tides  keeps  the  ice  drifting  down  from  the 
north-west  almost  constantly  packed,  M'Clintock  reached 
a  boat  with  two  skeletons  and  other  relics  already  visited 
by  Hobson,  who  had  found  other  cairns  and  many 
relics,  and,  in  Back  Bay,  another  record  by  Gore,  also 
deposited  in  1847,  but  giving  no  additional  news. 

Hobson  was  dragged  alongside  the  Fox,  on  the  14th 
of  June,  so  ill  with  scurvy  that  he  was  unable  to  walk  or 
even  stand  without  assistance.  M'Clintock  arrived  five 
days  later ;  and  on  the  27th  Allen  Young  returned 
after  an  exploration  of  three  hundred  and  eighty  miles 
of  coast-line,  which,  added  to  that  discovered  by 
M'Clintock  and  Hobson,  gave  a  total  of  eight  hundred 
geographical  miles  of  new  coast  as  the  work  of  the 
expedition,  besides  what  it  had  done  in  clearing  up  the 
Franklin  mystery. 

In  1869  Captain  C.  F.  Hall  collected  other  relics 
and  sufficient  information  to  account  for  seventy-nine 
men  out  of  the  hundred  and  five  who  left  the  ships. 
Ten  years  after  that,  Schwatka,  in  his  long,  careful 
search  of  King  William  Land,  discovered  the  grave  of 
Lieutenant  Irving,  in  which  were  some  fragments  of  his 
instruments  and  the  prize  medal  he  won  at  the  Royal 
Naval  College.  Near  by  were  many  traces  indicating 
that  it  was  the  site  of  the  first  encampment  of  the 


214  BOOTHIA 

retreating  crews  after  leaving  their  ships ;  and  down 
the  coast  he  traced  camp  after  camp,  and  death  after 
death.  Irving's  remains  were  brought  away  and  are 
buried  at  Edinburgh.  The  spot  where  they  were  found 
was  Cape  Jane  Franklin. 

More  fortunate  than  Franklin  was  Captain  Roald 
Amundsen.  Leaving  Christiania  in  the  G-joa  on  the 
16th  of  June,  1903,  he  crossed  the  Atlantic  and  pro- 
ceeded down  Peel  Sound,  past  Bellot  Strait,  and  along 
the  west  coast  of  Boothia,  where  a  fire  on  the  ship  did 
a  certain  amount  of  damage,  and,  struggling  thereafter 
for  ten  days  among  shoals  and  rocks,  down  James 
Ross  Strait,  past  Matty  Island  into  Rae  Strait,  he 
dropped  anchor  in  Petersen  Bay,  King  William  Land. 
For  his  base  station  he  required  a  site  in  which  the 
inclination  was  eighty-nine  degrees,  and  at  Gjoahaven, 
in  this  bay,  he  found  it  in  68°  30'  N.,  96°  W. 

Here  he  arranged  his  headquarters  for  his  observa- 
tions on  the  Magnetic  Pole  which  were  kept  going 
night  and  day  for  nineteen  months ;  and  here  he  stayed 
for  two  winters,  moving  about  in  the  country  around 
and  over  into  Boothia,  where  he  proved  that  the  Pole 
was  not  immovable  and  stationary,  but  in  all  likelihood 
in  continual  movement.  Leaving  the  south-eastern 
corner  of  King  William  Land  in  his  little  ship  he 
passed  through  Simpson  Strait,  linking  up  with  Collin- 
son ;  and,  like  him,  he  was  delayed  for  a  winter  on  the 
coast  of  the  American  mainland.  Through  Bering 
Strait  he  reached  San  Francisco,  where  the  voyage 
ended  in  the  sale  of  the  Gjoa.  Thus  of  Amundsen  it 
can  be  said,  without  any  qualification  whatever,  that 
he  accomplished  the  North-West  Passage. 


CHAPTER   XI 
BAFFIN   BAY 

Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert — Sir  Martin  Frobisher — His  first  voyage — The  fateful 
stone — First  meeting  with  the  Eskimos — The  Cathay  Company — Second 
voyage — Third  voyage — Frobisher  builds  a  fort — The  ships  among  the 
floes — Captain  Hall  finds  the  Frobisher  relics — Adrian  Gilbert — John 
Davis — His  voyages  and  dealings  with  the  Eskimos — Reaches  and  names 
Sanderson's  Hope— The  Traverse  Book — William  Baffin— His  first  voyage 
to  Greenland — His  fourth  and  fifth  voyages — Discovers  Baffin  Land — Dis- 
covers Baffin  Bay — Smith  Sound — Jones  Sound — Lancaster  Sound — 
Baffin's  farthest  north — John  Ross  and  Parry  verify  his  discoveries. 

IN  1566  Humphrey  Gilbert — who  was  as  near  to 
heaven  by  sea  as  by  land  —  petitioned  Queen 
Elizabeth  for  privileges  in  regard  to  discoveries  "  by 
the  North-west  to  Cataia"  as  an  alternative  to  a  petition 
he,  in  conjunction  with  Anthony  Jenkinson,  had  pre- 
sented the  previous  year  for  a  voyage  by  the  north- 
east. He  received  no  answer ;  but  ten  years  afterwards, 
in  support  of  this  unanswered  petition,  he  published 
his  Discourse  of  a  Discovery  for  a  New  Passage  to 
Cataia.  This  met  with  approval,  and  led,  with  little 
delay,  to  the  expedition  under  the  Martin  Frobisher 
who,  among  other  noteworthy  services,  commanded 
the  Triumph  in  the  Armada  fight  to  such  good  purpose 
that  he  was  one  of  the  five  distinguished  men  knighted 
by  Howard  in  mid-channel  after  the  battle  off  the 
Isle  of  Wight. 

Frobisher  was  a  good  seaman — but  no  mineralogist. 

215 


216  BAFFIN  BAY 

Mainly  at  the  expense  of  Ambrose  Dudley,  Earl  of 
Warwick,  and  under  the  business  management  of  that 
old  seafarer,  Michael  Lock,  of  the  Muscovy  Company, 
he  left  Blackwall  on  the  7th  of  June,  1576,  in  the 
Gabriel  of  twenty-five  tons,  accompanied  by  the 
Michael  of  twenty  tons — which  deserted  and  returned 
as  soon  as  difficulties  arose — and  a  ten-ton  pinnace, 
which  ended  by  foundering  off  Greenland.  All  told, 
the  expedition  numbered  thirty-five,  of  whom  the 
Gabriel  carried  eighteen ;  and  with  these  the  voyage 
through  the  Arctic  Ocean  was  to  be  made  to  China. 

Leaving  the  Shetlands  at  her  top  speed  of  a  league 
and  a  half  an  hour — which  her  master,  good  Christopher 
Hall,  proudly  recorded — the  Gabriel  sighted  Cape  Fare- 
well on  the  llth  of  July.  Two  days  afterwards  she 
was  thrown  on  her  beam-ends  in  a  storm,  and  was 
rapidly  filling  with  water  flowing  in  at  her  waist  when 
she  was  relieved  by  the  loss  of  her  fore-yard  and  the 
cutting  away  of  her  mizen-mast.  Rounding  the  cape, 
steering  westward  when  he  could  among  the  floating 
ice,  Frobisher  reached  a  high  headland  at  the  south- 
east end  of  what  is  now  Frobisher  Bay,  which  he 
named  Queen  Elizabeth  Foreland.  A  few  days  after- 
wards Hall,  out  in  a  boat  seeking  a  way  through  the 
ice  for  the  ship,  landed  on  what  they  called  Hall's 
Island,  and,  noticing  a  fog  coming  on,  left  hurriedly, 
snatching  up,  as  specimens  of  the  plants,  a  few  grasses 
and  flowers,  and,  as  a  rock  specimen,  a  heavy  black 
stone  picked  up  haphazard  on  the  beach.  The  grass 
faded,  the  flowers  perished,  and  the  fateful  stone 
remained. 

For  fifty  leagues   Frobisher   sailed  north-westward 


SIR  MARTIN   FROBISHER 


To  face  page  216 


THE  FATEFUL  STONE  217 

into  the  bay,  thinking  it  to  be  a  strait  with  Asia  on 
the  right  hand  and  America  on  the  left.  He  landed 
at  what  he  called  Butcher's  Island,  saw  "  mightie  deere 
which  ranne  at  him  and  hardly  he  escaped  with  his 
life  in  a  narrow  way  where  he  was  faine  to  use  defence 
and  policie,"  and  from  a  hill-top  "  perceived  a  number 
of  small  things  fleeting  in  the  sea  afarre  off  whyche 
hee  supposed  to  be  porposes  or  scales  or  some  kind  of 
strange  fishe  but  coming  nearer  he  discovered  them  to 
be  men  in  small  boates  made  of  leather,"  who  only  just 
failed  in  capturing  his  boat  before  he  reached  it.  Subse- 
quent conferences  with  the  Eskimos  ended  in  his  losing 
the  boat  with  five  men  who  had  gone  ashore  to  trade  ; 
and  finally,  having  lifted  single-handed  one  of  the 
interesting  natives,  kayak  and  all,  into  the  Gabriel,  he 
made  sail  for  home. 

When  Lock  went  aboard  on  the  ship's  arrival  there 
were  no  riches  from  Cathay,  nothing  worth  mention- 
ing beyond  the  Eskimo — who  soon  died — the  kayak 
and  paddle,  and  "  the  fyrste  thynge  found  in  the  new 
land,"  the  black  stone.  He  carried  away  the  stone, 
after  chipping  off  a  few  fragments  for  the  friends 
around,  and  after  a  week  or  two's  consideration  sent 
some  of  it  to  the  Mint  to  be  assayed.  The  report  was 
not  as  he  expected ;  the  "  saymaster  "  was  of  opinion 
that  it  was  marcasite,  that  is,  iron  pyrites.  Not  satisfied, 
Lock  sent  some  to  another  expert,  who  also  said  it  was 
pyrites.  Then  he  tried  a  third  man,  who  could  find  no 
gold  in  it.  And  then  he  tried  a  fourth — this  time  an 
Italian — who  gave  him  the  answer  he  wanted:  "A  very 
little  powder  of  gold  came  thereout." 

Lock  sent  him  some  more,  telling  him  frankly  that 


218  BAFFIN   BAY 

three  other  assayers  "could  find  no  such  thing  therein," 
but  again  the  Italian  was  equal  to  the  occasion.  "  The 
xviii  day  of  January,"  writes  Lock,  "  he  sent  me  by  his 
mayde  this  little  scrap  of  paper  written,  No.  1,  herein- 
closed  ;  and  thereinclosed  the  grayne  of  gold,  which 
afterward  I  delivered  to  your  majesty."  For  the  Queen 
had  become  interested  in  the  wonderful  stone  which 
was  the  talk  of  the  town,  its  value  increasing  at  every 
recital  until  many  believed,  as  Sir  Philip  Sidney  seems 
to  have  done,  that  it  was  "  the  purest  gold  unalloyed 
with  any  other  metals." 

Lock  was  not  the  man  to  let  such  excellent  adver- 
tisement be  lost,  and  forth  with  he  projected  the  Cathay 
Company  for  which  the  charter  was  obtained  from  the 
Crown  on  St.  Patrick's  Day,  1577.  Lock  was  named  as 
Governor  for  six  years  with  remuneration  "  for  ever  " 
of  one  per  cent  on  all  goods  imported ;  Frobisher  was 
named  as  Captain  by  sea  and  Admiral  of  the  ships  and 
navy  of  the  Company  for  life  with  a  yearly  stipend  and 
one  per  cent,  like  Lock,  on  all  goods  the  Company 
brought  in.  Queen  Elizabeth — notwithstanding  the 
report  from  the  Mint — headed  the  list  of  shareholders 
with  £1000 ;  and  Burghley,  Howard,  Leicester,  Wal- 
singham,  Hunsdon,  Sidney,  even  Gresham,  subscribed 
for  shares  in  this  remarkable  company. 

To  bring  home  more  of  the  "golden  ore,"  a  new 
expedition  was  entered  upon  at  once,  and  on  the  26th 
of  May,  Whit-Sunday  as  it  happened,  Frobisher 
started  on  his  second  voyage.  He  had  three  vessels, 
the  Aid  of  two  hundred  tons,  lent  him  from  the 
Royal  Navy,  and  the  Gabriel  and  Michael  as  before, 
and  one  hundred  and  twenty  officers  and  men,  of  whom 


FROBISHEITS  SECOND  VOYAGE  219 

thirty  were  miners  and  other  landsmen,  and,  in  addition, 
six  condemned  criminals  whom  he  was  to  land  in  Green- 
land as  colonists  but  put  ashore  at  Harwich  instead. 

To  the  new  land — named  by  the  Queen  Meta 
Incognita,  "  the  unknown  limit  of  the  outward  course  " 
— he  made  his  way  without  much  adventure.  Land- 
ing on  Hall's  Island,  he  sought  for  more  stone  but 
could  find  not  so  much  as  a  piece  as  big  as  a  walnut ; 
for  Hall,  who  was  again  with  him  as  master,  had 
apparently  lighted,  in  the  one  sample,  on  the  whole  of 
its  mineral  wealth.  This  disappointment,  however,  was 
forgotten  in  the  finding  of  occasional  patches  of  pyrites 
on  the  mainland  and  other  islands  which  in  due  course 
were  visited.  Thirty  leagues  up  the  bay  a  landing  was 
made  on  what  was  called  Countess  of  Warwick's 
Island,  where  more  ore  was  found  and  a  fort  called 
Best's  Bulwark  was  built.  That  was  Frobisher's 
farthest  on  this  voyage,  and  thence  he  sailed  on  the 
24th  of  August,  bringing  with  him  two  hundred  tons 
of  pyrites,  and,  as  a  present  for  the  Queen,  a  horn  two 
yards  long,  wreathed  and  straight,  which  he  had  found 
in  the  nose  of  a  dead  narwhal. 

The  ore  was  received  with  rejoicings.  Some  of  it 
was  deposited  in  Bristol  Castle,  some  in  the  Tower  of 
London  under  four  locks,  but  there  was  not  enough  of  it ; 
and  as  there  were  then,  as  now,  no  furnaces  in  England 
capable  of  getting  gold  out  of  marcasite,  a  new  ex- 
pedition was  despatched  while  the  furnaces  were  being 
prepared.  This  time  the  enterprise  was  to  be  on  a  very 
different  scale.  Frobisher  was  given  a  fleet  of  fifteen 
vessels,  Drake's  old  ship,  the  Judith,  amongst  them,  the 
Aid,  as  before,  being  the  flagship.  He  was  to  bring 


220  BAFFIN  BAY 

home  two  thousand  tons  of  mineral  and  find  other 
mines,  if  he  could,  besides  taking  out  a  colony  of  a 
hundred  persons  to  settle  in  Meta  Incognita,  for  whom 
the  materials  of  a  wooden  house  were  among  the  mis- 
cellaneous cargo. 

The  fleet  left  Harwich  on  the  31st  of  May,  1578.  A 
landing  was  made  in  the  south  of  Greenland,  which 
Frobisher  named  West  England  and  took  possession 
of,  his  point  of  departure  from  there  being  called  by 
him,  "  from  a  certain  similitude,"  Charing  Cross  !  Soon 
he  was  among  the  ice  floes.  One  of  the  ships  was  driven 
on  to  a  floe  and  sank  with  some  of  the  materials  for  the 
wooden  house.  Then  followed  a  storm  in  which  most 
of  the  ships  had  a  terrible  experience.  "  Some,"  says 
Captain  Best  of  the  Ann  Frances,  the  chronicler  of  the 
voyage,  "  were  so  fast  shut  up  and  compassed  in  amongst 
an  infinite  number  of  great  countreys  and  ilands  of  ise, 
that  they  were  fayne  to  submit  themselves  and  their 
ships  to  the  mercie  of  the  unmercifull  ise,  and  strength- 
ened the  sides  of  their  ships  with  junckes  of  cables, 
beds,  masts,  planckes,  and  such  like,  which  being  hanged 
overboord,  on  the  sides  of  their  shippes,  mighte  the 
better  defend  them  from  the  outrageous  sway  and 
strokes  of  the  said  ise.  But  as  in  greatest  distresse, 
men  of  best  value  are  best  to  be  discerned,  so  it  is 
greatly  worthy  commendation  and  noting  with  what 
invincible  mind  every  captayne  encouraged  his  company, 
and  with  what  incredible  labour  the  paynefull  mariners 
and  poore  miners  (unacquainted  with  such  extremities) 
to  the  everlasting  renoune  of  our  nation,  dyd  overcome 
the  brunt  of  these  so  great  and  extreame  daungers  ;  for 
some,  even  without  boorde  uppon  the  ise,  and  some 


FROBISHER'S  THIRD   VOYAGE 

within  boorde,  uppon  the  sides  of  their  shippes,  having 
poles,  pikes,  peeces  of  timber  and  ores  in  their  hands, 
stood  almost  day  and  night,  without  any  reste,  bearing 
off  the  force,  and  breaking  the  sway  of  the  ise,  with 
suche  incredible  payne  and  perill  that  it  was  wonderfull 
to  behold,  which  otherwise  no  doubt  had  striken  quite 
through  and  through  the  sides  of  their  shippes,  not- 
withstanding our  former  provision ;  for  planckes  of 
timber,  of  more  than  three  ynches  thick,  and  other 
things  of  greater  force  and  bignesse,  by  the  surging  of 
the  sea  and  billow,  with  the  ise  were  shevered  and  cutte 
in  sunder  at  the  sides  of  oure  ships,  that  it  will  seeme 
more  than  credible  to  be  reported  of.  And  yet  (that 
which  is  more)  it  is  faythfully  and  playnely  to  be  proved, 
and  that  by  many  substantiall  witnesses,  that  our 
shippes,  even  those  of  greatest  burdens,  with  the 
meeting  of  contrary  waves  of  the  sea,  were  heaved  up 
betweene  ilandes  of  ise  a  foote  welneere  out  of  the  sea 
above  their  watermarke,  having  their  knees  and  timbers 
within  boorde  both  bowed  and  broken  therewith." 

To  add  to  the  difficulties  of  the  voyage  Frobisher 
lost  his  way,  and  entered  what  he  called  the  Mistaken 
Streight — now  designated  Hudson  Strait — through 
which  he  might  have  found  his  way  to  Cathay,  had  he 
been  so  minded ;  but  recognising  that  he  was  on  the 
wrong  road  he  returned  and  reached  his  mining  district 
at  the  end  of  July.  While  the  ore  was  being  gathered 
in,  Best  ventured  into  the  upper  part  of  Frobisher  Bay 
as  far  as  the  Gabriel  Islands — the  only  exploring  work 
that  was  done — and  early  in  September  the  fleet  de- 
parted on  the  homeward  voyage. 

Frobisher  had   left  one  unmistakable  indication  of 


222  BAFFIN   BAY 

his  visit  behind  him.  On  Countess  of  Warwick  Island 
he  had  built  a  house  of  lime  and  stone,  and  "  the  better," 
says  Best,  "  to  allure  those  brutish  and  uncivill  people  to 
courtesie,  againste  other  times  of  our  comming,  we  left 
therein  dy vers  of  our  countrye  toyes,  as  bells  and  knives, 
wherein  they  specially  delight,  one  for  the  necessarie 
use,  and  the  other  for  the  great  pleasure  thereof.  Also 
pictures  of  men  and  women  in  lead,  men  a  horsebacke, 
lookinglasses,  whistles  and  pipes.  Also  in  the  house 
was  made  an  oven,  and  breade  left  baked  therein,  for 
them  to  see  and  taste.  We  buried  the  timber  of  our 
pretended  forte,  with  manye  barrels  of  meale,  pease, 
griste,  and  sundrie  other  good  things,  which  was  of  the 
provision  of  those  whyche  should  inhabite,  if  occasion 
served.  And  insteade  therof  we  fraight  oure  ships 
full  of  ore,  whiche  we  holde  of  farre  greater  price." 

Here  we  part  from  the  Cathay  Company.  The  in- 
evitable trouble  came  with  the  discovery  that,  practically, 
the  only  gold  the  ore  would  yield  was  that  put  in  as  an 
"  additament "  by  the  Italian.  A  very  thick  cloud 
rolled  over  Frobisher,  who,  like  Lock,  seems  to  have 
believed  in  the  genuineness  of  the  affair  all  through  ; 
but  soon  his  country  had  need  of  him  and  he  came  to 
the  front  again  in  so  worthy  a  manner  that  little  more 
was  heard  of  his  connection  with  this  company  that 
failed. 

To  complete  the  story.  In  1861  (say  three  hundred 
years  afterwards)  Captain  Hall — hearing  among  the 
Eskimos  how  numerous  white  men  had  arrived  first  in 
two,  then  three,  then  a  great  many  ships,  how  they  had 
killed  several  natives  and  taken  away  two,  how  five  of 
the  white  men  had  been  captured,  and  how  these  had 


ESKIMO  AWAITING  A  SEAL 


To  face  page  222 


JOHN   DAVIS 

built  a  large  boat  and  put  a  mast  in  her  and  sailed  away 
to  death  when  the  water  was  open — went  to  Kod-lun- 
arn  (White  Man's  Island)  and  there  found  the  house  of 
lime  and  stone  as  described,  and  traces  of  the  diggings, 
and  many  relics  among  which  he  made  the  collection 
presented  by  him  to  the  British  Government. 

In  the  year  1583,  when  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert,  whose 
lyiscourse  gave  so  great  a  stimulus  to  Arctic  discovery, 
founded  St.  John's,  Newfoundland — the  first  English 
colony  in  America — a  patent  was  granted  by  Queen 
Elizabeth  to  his  brother  Adrian  "  of  Sandridge  in  the 
county  of  Devon,"  as  one  of  the  colleagues  of  the 
Fellowship  for  the  Discovery  of  the  North -West 
Passage.  At  this  Sandridge — on  the  east  of  the  Dart, 
bounded  on  three  sides  by  the  river,  some  two  miles 
above  Dartmouth — was  the  home  of  the  three  Gilberts 
(John,  Humphrey,  and  Adrian),  whose  mother  by  a 
second  marriage  became  the  mother  of  Carew  and 
Walter  Raleigh;  and  here,  about  1550,  of  a  family 
also  owning  property  in  the  small  peninsula,  was  born 
John  Davis,  as  we  know  him,  or  John  Davys,  as  he 
signed  himself,  who  was  probably  a  playmate,  and 
certainly  a  life-long  friend,  of  these  five. 

Davis  was  an  accomplished  seaman,  the  best  of  the 
Elizabethan  navigators,  and  a  man  of  accurate  observa- 
tion, always  on  the  alert,  whose  reputation  does  not 
rest  only  on  the  work  he  did  in  the  northern  and  other 
seas,  for  he  was  the  author  of  The  Seaman's  Secrets, 
the  most  popular  practical  navigation  treatise  of  its 
time.  Very  early,  perhaps  from  the  first,  he  was  one 
of  the  moving  spirits  in  this  new  north-west  enterprise, 
for  on  the  23rd  of  January,  1583,  we  find  Dr.  Dee — 


BAFFIN   BAY 

who  had  helped  to  send  Frobisher  on  his  first  voyage 
— making  an  entry  in  his  journal  that  Mr.  Secretary 
Walsingham  had  come  to  his  house,  where  by  good 
luck  he  found  Mr.  Adrian  Gilbert,  and  so  talk  began 
on  "  the  north-west  straits  discovery  " ;  and,  next  day, 
"  I,  Mr.  Awdrian  Gilbert  and  John  Davis,  went  by 
appointment  to  Mr.  Beale,  his  howse,  where  only  we 
four  were  secret,  and  we  made  Mr.  Secretary  privie  of 
the  N.W.  Passage,  and  all  charts  and  rutters  were 
agreed  upon  in  generall " — "  rutter  "  being  the  French 
"  routier,"  originating  in  Le  Routier  de  la  Mer,  signify- 
ing a  book  of  sea  routes.  Another  important  friend 
of  Davis  was  William  Sanderson,  the  representative 
of  the  merchants  by  whom  the  expenses  of  the  voyage 
were  borne,  he  being  the  chief  subscriber.  One  of  the 
ships,  the  Moonshine,  seems  to  have  belonged  to  him, 
and  it  was  largely  owing  to  his  influence  among  the 
shareholders  that  Davis  was  appointed  captain  and 
chief  pilot  of  the  "exployt,"  in  which  he  was  to 
practically  rediscover  Greenland. 

There  were  two  vessels,  the  Sunshine  of  London, 
fifty-nine  tons,  with  twenty-three  persons  on  board, 
and  the  Moonshine  of  Dartmouth,  thirty-five  tons,  with 
nineteen.  They  left  Dartmouth  on  the  7th  of  June, 
1585,  but  had  to  put  in  at  Falmouth  and  then  at  the 
Scillies,  where  Davis  occupied  the  twelve  days  he 
spent  there  in  surveying  and  charting  the  islands.  On 
the  20th  of  July  they  were  sailing  down  the  east  coast 
of  Greenland,  and  were  so  little  attracted  by  it  that 
Davis  called  it  the  Land  of  Desolation.  Nine  days 
afterwards  he  found  a  group  of  many  pleasant  green 
islands  bordering  on  the  shore,  while  the  mountains  of 


THE   REDISCOVERY   OF  GREENLAND 

the  mainland  were  still  covered  with  snow,  and  here  he 
landed  on  the  west  coast  at  Gilbert  Sound,  as  he  named 
it,  near  where  Godthaab  now  is,  and  entered  into  com- 
munication with  the  natives. 

For  such  occasions,  apparently,  he  had  among  the 
Sunshine  people  four  described  as  musicians,  whom,  on 
sighting  the  Eskimos,  he  sent  for.  As  soon  as  they 
arrived  from  the  ship  he  ordered  them  to  strike  up  a 
dancing  tune,  and  to  their  merry  music  Davis  and  his 
men  began  to  caper  as  if  they  were  enjoying  them- 
selves immensely,  while  the  lookers-on  gradually  in- 
creased in  number.  "At  length,"  he  says,  "one  of 
them  poynting  up  to  the  sunne  with  his  hande  would 
presently  strike  his  brest  so  hard  that  we  might  hear 
the  blowe.  This  he  did  many  times,  before  he  would 
any  way  trust  us.  Then  John  Ellis  the  master  of  the 
Mooneshine,  was  appointed  to  use  his  best  policie  to 
gaine  their  friendshippe :  who  strooke  his  breast  and 
poynted  to  the  sunne  after  their  order :  which  when  he 
had  diverse  times  done,  they  began  to  trust  him,  and 
one  of  them  came  on  shoare,  to  whom  we  threwe  our 
caps,  stockings  and  gloves,  and  such  other  things  as 
then  we  had  about  us,  playing  with  our  musicke,  and 
making  signes  of  joy,  and  dancing.  So  the  night 
comming  we  bade  them  farewell,  and  went  aboord 
our  barks." 

The  next  morning,  being  the  30th  of  July,  thirty- 
seven  canoes  came  up  to  the  ships,  their  occupants 
calling  to  the  English  to  come  on  shore.  "  Wee  not 
making  any  great  haste  unto  them,  one  of  them  went 
up  to  the  top  of  the  rocke,  and  lept  and  daunced  as 
they  had  done  the  day  before,  shewing  us  a  scales 


226  BAFFIN   BAY 

skinne,  and  another  thing  made  like  a  timbrel,  which 
he  did  beate  upon  with  a  sticke,  making  a  noyse  like  a 
small  drumme."  Whereupon  Davis  manned  his  boats 
and  went  to  the  waterside  where  they  were  in  their 
canoes,  "  and  after  we  had  sworne  by  the  sunne  after 
their  fashion,  they  did  trust  us.  So  I  shooke  hands 
with  one  of  them,  and  hee  kissed  my  hand,  and  we 
were  very  familier  with  them.  We  bought  five  canoas 
of  them,  we  bought  their  clothes  from  their  backs, 
which  were  all  made  of  scales  skins  and  birdes  skinnes : 
their  buskins,  their  hose,  their  gloves,  all  being  com- 
monly sewed  and  well  dressed :  so  that  we  were  fully 
persuaded  that  they  have  divers  artificers  among  them. 
Wee  had  a  paire  of  buskins  of  them  full  of  fine  wooll 
like  bever.  Their  apparell  for  heate,  was  made  of  bird 
skinnes  with  their  feathers  on  them.  We  sawe  among 
them  leather  dressed  like  glovers  leather,  and  thicke 
thongs  like  white  leather  of  a  good  length.  Wee  had 
of  their  darts  and  oares,  and  found  in  them  that  they 
would  by  no  meanes  displease  us,  but  would  give  us 
whatsoever  we  asked  of  them  and  would  be  satisfied 
with  whatsoever  we  gave  them.  They  took  great  care 
one  of  an  other :  for  when  we  had  bought  their  boates, 
then  two  other  woulde  come  and  carie  him  away  be- 
tweene  them  that  had  soulde  us  his."  He  describes 
them  as  "a  very  tractable  people,  voyde  of  craft  or 
double  dealing,  and  easie  to  be  brought  to  civiltie  or 
good  order,"  the  men  of  good  stature,  unbearded, 
small-eyed,  "by  whom,  as  signes  would  permit,  we 
understood  that  towards  the  north  and  west  there  was 
a  great  sea." 

During  his  stay  among  these  islands  he  found  con- 


DISCOVERY   OF  DAVIS  STRAIT  227 

siderable  quantities  of  wood — fir,  spruce,  and  juniper— 
which  whether  it  came  floating  any  great  distance  or 
grew  in  some  island  near  he  did  not  discover ;  but  he 
thought  it  grew  further  inland  because  the  people  had 
so  many  darts  and  paddles  which  they  held  of  little 
value  and  gave  away  for  insignificant  trifles.  He  also 
found  "  great  abundance  of  scales  "  in  shoals  as  if  they 
were  small  fish ;  but  saw  no  fresh  water,  only  snow 
water  in  large  pools,  and  he  notes  that  the  "  cliffes  were 
all  of  such  oare  as  M.  Frobisher  brought  from  Meta 
Incognita." 

Leaving  the  sound  on  the  1  st  of  August  he  crossed 
the  strait  now  named  after  him  and  reached  land  in 
66°  40'.  In  water  "  altogether  voyd  from  ye  pester  of 
ice  "  he  anchored,  "  in  a  very  fair  rode,  under  a  very 
brave  mount,  the  cliffs  whereof  were  as  orient  as  gold." 
This  mount  he  named  Mount  Raleigh,  the  roadstead 
he  called  Totnes  Rode,  the  sound  round  the  mount  he 
named  Exeter  Sound,  the  foreland  to  the  north  he 
called  Dyer's  Cape,  the  southern  foreland  being  named 
Cape  Walsingham — all  of  which  names  remain.  Here 
white  bears  were  killed  "of  monstrous  bignesse,"  a 
raven  was  descried  upon  Mount  Raleigh,  withies  were 
found  growing  low  like  shrubs,  and  there  were  flowers 
like  primroses,  though  there  was  no  grass. 

For  three  days  Davis  went  coasting  downwards,  and 
rounding  the  southern  point  of  the  peninsula,  which  he 
named  the  Cape  of  God's  Mercy,  he  entered  what  he 
afterwards  called  Cumberland  Strait,  now  Cumberland 
Gulf,  supposing  it  to  be  his  way  to  the  westward.  It 
was  clear  of  ice ;  sixty  leagues  up  islands  were  found, 
among  which  a  stay  was  made  during  five  days  of  very 


228  BAFFIN   BAY 

foggy  foul  weather.  On  the  15th  of  August  "we 
heard  dogs  houle  on  the  shoare,  which  we  thought  had 
bene  Wolves,  and  therefore  we  went  on  shoare  to  kil 
them  ;  when  we  came  on  lande,  the  dogs  came  presently 
to  our  boate  very  gently,  yet  we  thought  they  came  to 
pray  upon  us,  and  therefore  we  shot  at  them  and  killed 
two :  and  about  the  necke  of  one  of  them  we  found 
a  letheren  coller,  whereupon  we  thought  them  to  be 
tame  dogs.  Then  wee  went  farther  and  founde  two 
sleads  made  like  ours  in  Englande.  The  one  was  made 
of  firre,  spruse  and  oken  boards,  sawen  like  inch 
boards ;  the  other  was  made  all  of  whale  bone,  and 
there  hung  on  the  toppes  of  the  sleds  three  heads  of 
beasts,  which  they  had  killed.  We  saw  here  larkes, 
ravens,  and  partriges  " — probably  rock  ptarmigan. 

Searching  about,  it  was  agreed  that  the  place  was  all 
islands,  with  sounds  passing  between  them ;  that  the 
water  remained  of  the  same  colour  as  the  main  ocean, 
whereas  in  every  bay  they  had  been  into  it  became 
blackish ;  that  a  shoal  of  whales  they  saw  must  have 
come  from  the  west,  because  to  the  eastward  no  whale 
had  been  seen ;  that  "  there  came  a  violent  counter 
checke  of  a  tide  from  the  southwest  against  the  flood 
which  we  came  with,  not  knowing  from  whence  it  was 
maintayned  " ;  that  the  further  they  ran  westward  the 
deeper  was  the  water,  "  so  that  hard  abord  the  shoare 
among  these  yles  we  could  not  have  ground  in  330 
fathoms  " ;  and  that,  lastly,  there  was  a  tide  range  of 
six  or  seven  fathoms,  "  the  flood  comming  from 
diverse  parts,  so  as  we  could  not  perceive  the  chiefe 
maintenance  thereof."  For  which  six  reasons  it  was 
determined  to  continue  the  voyage  to  the  westward  if 


THE   SECOND   VOYAGE   OF  JOHN   DAVIS       229 

the  weather  changed — which  it  did  to  worse  with  the 
wind  unfavourable,  so  that  the  ships  had  to  run  for 
shelter  and  then  sail  for  home,  crossing  the  Atlantic 
from  Greenland  in  a  fortnight.  On  arrival  Davis 
reported  to  Walsingham  that  the  North-West  Passage 
was  a  matter  nothing  doubtful,  but  at  any  time  almost 
to  be  passed,  the  sea  navigable,  void  of  ice,  the  air 
tolerable,  and  the  waters  very  deep ;  and  a  voyage  for 
next  year  was  decided  on,  for  which  the  merchants 
of  Exeter,  Totnes,  London,  Cullompton,  Chard,  and 
Tiverton,  and  five  private  subscribers,  "did  adventure 
their  money" — to  the  amount  of  £1175 — "with  Mr. 
Adrian  Gilbert  and  Mr.  John  Davis  in  a  voyage  for 
the  discovery  of  China,  the  seventh  daie  of  April  in 
the  xxviij  yeare  of  the  rayne  of  or.  soverayne  Ladie 
Elizabeth." 

The  fleet,  consisting  of  the  Mermaid  of  one  hundred 
and  twenty  tons,  the  Sunshine  and  Moonshine,  and  a 
ten-ton  pinnace  named  the  North  Star,  left  Dartmouth 
on  the  7th  of  May,  1586.  On  reaching  Greenland  the 
Sunshine  and  North  Star  were  sent  up  the  east  coast 
of  Greenland,  while  the  Mermaid  and  Moonshine  made 
for  Gilbert  Sound. 

Here  the  Eskimos  received  them  cordially  "after 
they  had  espied  in  the  boate,  some  of  our  companie 
that  were  the  yeere  before  heere  with  us,  they  presently 
rowed  to  the  boate,  and  tooke  holde  on  the  oare,  and 
hung  about  the  boate  with  such  comfortable  joy  as 
woulde  require  a  long  discourse  to  be  uttered:  they 
came  with  the  boates  to  our  shippes,  making  signes 
that  they  knewe  all  those  that  the  yere  before  had 
bene  with  them.  After  I  perceived  their  joy,  and  smal 


230  BAFFIN   BAY 

feare  of  us,  my  selfe  with  the  merchaunts,  and  others 
of  the  company  went  a  shoare,  bearing  with  me 
twentie  knives :  I  had  no  sooner  landed,  but  they  lept 
out  of  their  Canoas,  and  came  running  to  mee  and  the 
rest,  and  imbraced  us  with  many  signes  of  hartie 
welcome  :  at  this  present  there  were  eighteene  of  them, 
and  to  each  of  them  I  gave  a  knife :  they  offered 
skinnes  to  mee  for  rewarde,  but  I  made  signes  that  it 
was  not  solde,  but  given  them  of  curtesie :  and  so  dis- 
missed them  for  that  time,  with  signes  that  they 
shoulde  returne  againe  after  certaine  houres."  But 
soon  there  were  passing  troubles  owing  to  iron  having 
so  great  an  attraction  for  them  that  they  could  not 
resist  stealing  it.  While  amongst  them,  exploring  the 
country,  Davis  compiled  the  first  Eskimo  vocabulary 
known,  a  list  of  some  forty  words  written  down 
phonetically,  most  of  them  remarkably  good  approaches 
considering  that  both  parties  were  ignorant  of  each 
other's  language,  none  of  them,  however,  except  that 
for  "  sea  "  being  likely  to  be  of  any  use  in  putting  him 
on  the  road  to  China. 

On  leaving  Gilbert  Sound,  Davis  when  in  latitude 
63°  8'  "  fel  upon  a  most  mighty  and  strange  quantity  of 
ice,  in  one  intyre  masse,  so  bigge  as  that  we  knew  not 
the  limits  thereof,  and  being  withall  so  very  high,  in 
forme  of  a  land,  with  bayes  and  capes,  and  like  high 
cliffe  land,  as  that  we  supposed  it  to  be  land,  and  there- 
fore sent  our  pinnesse  off  to  discover  it :  but  at  her 
returne  we  were  certainely  informed  that  it  was  onely 
ice,  which  bred  great  admiration  to  us  all,  considering 
the  huge  quantity  thereof,  incredible  to  be  reported  in 
truth  as  it  was,  and  therefore  I  omit  to  speake  any 


THE   SHOAL  OF  CODFISH  231 

further  thereof.  This  onely,  I  thinke  that  the  like 
before  was  never  scene,  and  in  this  place  we  had  very 
stickle  and  strong  currants.  We  coasted  this  mighty 
masse  of  ice  untill  the  30  of  July,  finding  it  a  mighty 
bar  to  our  purpose :  the  ayre  in  this  time  was  so  con- 
tagious, and  the  sea  so  pestered  with  ice,  as  that  all 
hope  was  banished  of  proceeding :  for  the  24  of  July 
all  our  shrowds,  ropes,  and  sailes  were  so  frozen,  and 
compassed  with  ice,  onely  by  a  grosse  fogge,  as  seemed 
to  me  more  then  strange,  sith  the  last  yeere  I  found  this 
sea  free  and  navigable,  without  impediments." 

Crossing  the  straits  he  repaired  and  revictualled  the 
Moonshine  in  an  excellent  harbour  among  islands  where 
they  found  it  very  hot  and  were  "  very  much  troubled 
with  a  flie  which  is  called  Musketa,  for  they  did  sting 
grievously."  Forsaken  by  the  Mermaid,  he  abandoned 
the  search  in  Cumberland  Sound  as  he  "found  small 
hope  to  pass  any  farther  that  way,"  and  worked  south, 
it  being  too  late  to  go  northwards,  crossing  Frobisher 
Bay,  which  he  described  as  "  another  great  inlet  neere 
forty  leagues  broad  where  the  water  entered  with 
violent  swiftnesse,  this  we  also  thought  might  be  a 
passage,  for  no  doubt  the  north  parts  of  America  are 
all  islands."  Off  the  coast  of  Labrador  he  found  a  vast 
shoal  of  codfish,  of  which  he  caught  over  forty  with  a 
long  spike  nail  made  into  a  hook.  These  he  salted,  and 
some  of  them,  on  his  return,  he  gave,  at  Walsingham's 
request,  to  Burghley,  who,  at  an  interview,  encouraged 
him  to  make  a  further  attempt. 

Next  year  he  was  off  again,  this  time  "  to  the  Isles 
of  the  Molucca  or  the  coast  of  China."  He  seems  to 
have  been  on  board  the  Ellen,  a  small  craft  of  some 


BAFFIN  BAY 

twenty  tons,  his  two  other  vessels  being  the  Sunshine 
as  before,  and  the  Elizabeth.  These  he  left  to  fish  for 
cod  in  the  straits  while  he  went  northward  from  Gilbert 
Sound  in  his  little  "  clinker,"  which  he  had  probably 
chosen  as  being  handy  for  ice  navigation.  Running 
along  the  land,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  London 
Coast,  he  reached  72°  12' — the  highest  north  up  to  then 
attained — where  he  named  the  loftiest  of  the  headlands 
Sanderson's  Hope,  whose  lofty  crest  piercing  through 
the  driving  clouds  near  Upernivik  has  become  perhaps 
the  best-known  landmark  in  the  northern  seas.  Here 
the  wind  suddenly  shifting  to  the  northward  made 
further  progress  impossible,  and  he  had  to  shape  his 
course  westerly,  and  then,  owing  to  ice,  which  he  in 
vain  endeavoured  to  get  round  to  the  north,  he  had  to 
turn  southwards.  Amid  much  fog,  and  with  the  ice 
always  present,  he  came  down  the  coast  of  Baffin  Land, 
giving  a  name  here  and  there  on  the  way,  until  on  the 
31st  of  July  he  passed  "a  very  great  gulfe,  the  water 
whirling  and  roring,  as  it  were  the  meetings  of  tides," 
which  was  probably  the  entrance  to  Hudson  Strait. 
Next  day  he  was  off  the  Labrador  coast  and  named 
Cape  Chidley  after  his  friend  who  died  in  the  Straits  of 
Magellan,  and  on  the  15th  of  August  he  laid  his  course 
for  England. 

Of  this  voyage  Hakluyt  prints  the  Traverse  Book, 
one  of  the  earliest  known.  In  it  the  full  detail  is  given 
for  every  day,  arranged  in  nine  columns,  one  each  for 
the  month,  the  day,  the  hour,  the  courses,  the  leagues, 
the  elevation  of  the  pole  in  degrees  and  minutes,  the 
wind,  and  a  remarks  column  headed  "  The  Discourse  " 
— for  Davis  was  an  exact  and  systematic  man  remark- 


BAFFIN  BAY  IN  1819 


To  face  page  232 


BAFFIN  AND  BYLOT 
able  for  his  latitudes  never  being  wrong,  though  like 
all  those  old  navigators  before  the  invention  of  the 
chronometer,  he  was  frequently  out  in  his  longitude. 
He  was  going  off  again  bound  for  the  sea  north  of 
Sanderson's  Hope,  but  the  coming  of  the  Armada  and 
the  death  of  Walsingham  caused  the  postponement  of 
the  project  he  did  not  abandon,  for  it  seems  that  the 
Desire,  in  which  he  discovered  the  Falkland  Islands  at 
the  other  end  of  America,  was  to  be  his  reward  for 
accompanying  Cavendish  round  the  world,  and  that  in 
her  he  intended  to  make  his  next  Polar  voyage. 

The  work  he  had  set  himself  to  do  was  done  by 
William  Baffin,  who  first  appears  in  the  Arctic  record 
as  pilot  of  the  Patience  in  James  Hall's  Greenland 
voyage  in  1612,  which  ended  in  Hall  being  killed  in 
revenge  for  the  kidnapping  proceedings  on  the  two 
previous  voyages  under  the  Danish  flag.  Baffin  then 
made  two  voyages,  as  we  have  seen,  to  Spitsbergen  in 
the  service  of  the  Muscovy  Company,  and,  in  that  of  the 
Company  for  the  Discovery  of  the  North-West  Passage, 
he  made  his  fourth,  in  1615.  In  Hudson's  old  ship  the 
Discovery,  also  her  fourth  trip  to  the  north,  he  passed 
up  Hudson  Strait  to  the  end  of  Southampton  Island, 
where  he  abandoned  the  attempt  to  get  through  owing 
to  ice  and  shallow  water,  and  returned  after  discovering 
the  land  that  Parry  named  after  him. 

In  his  fifth  voyage,  again  in  the  Discovery,  with 
Robert  Bylot  again  as  master,  he  left  Gravesend  on 
the  16th  of  March,  1616,  and  reached  Sanderson's 
Hope  on  the  30th  of  May,  discovering  the  great  bay 
to  the  north  which  bears  his  name.  Passing  the 
Women  Islands  and  the  Baffin  Islands  off  Cape 


234  BAFFIN   BAY 

Shackleton,  he  took  the  middle  passage  across  Melville 
Bay,  coasting  along  by  Cape  York,  by  the  cape  named 
after  one  of  his  directors,  Sir  Dudley  Digges,  and  the 
sound  named  after  another  of  his  directors,  Sir  John 
Wolstenholme ;  along  Prudhoe  Land,  entering  the  North 
Water  of  the  whalers,  reaching  Cape  Alexander  in 
77°  45',  his  farthest  north ;  opening  up  and  naming 
Smith  Sound,  after  Sir  Thomas  Smith,  another  of  his 
directors,  and  Jones  Sound,  after  Alderman  Sir  Francis 
Jones,  another  of  the  board,  and  Lancaster  Sound, 
after  Sir  James  Lancaster  of  the  East  India  Company. 
Thus,  coasting  Ellesmere  Land,  North  Devon,  Bylot 
Island,  and  Baffin  Land,  he  continued  his  voyage  from 
the  north  on  his  way  home.  A  good  piece  of  work : 
the  discoveries  so  many  and  unexpected  that  people 
ceased  to  believe  in  them,  geographers  going  so  far  as 
to  erase  his  bay  from  their  maps  until,  two  hundred 
years  afterwards,  Ross  and  Parry  sailed  over  the  land 
of  the  unbelievers  and  confirmed  Baffin's  work  in  every 
detail — and  Ross,  in  his  best  mountain-finding  manner, 
reported  no  thoroughfare  at  Smith  Sound. 


DR.    E.    K.    KANE 


To  face  page  234 


CHAPTER   XII 
SMITH   SOUND 

Captain  Inglefield — Dr.  Kane — The  open  Polar  Sea — Hans  Hendrik  the 
Greenlander — Kalutunah  the  Eskimo — An  Eskimo  bear-hunt — A  lesson 
in  catching  auks— Dr.  Hayes — His  journey  over  the  glacier — Tyndall 
Glacier — Captain  C.  F.  Hall — Joe  and  Hannah — Voyage  of  the  Polaris — 
Drift  of  the  Polaris — The  voyage  on  the  ice-floe — The  British  Government 
Expedition  of  1875— The  Alert  and  Discovery — The  cairn  on  Washington 
Irving  Island — Discovery  Harbour — How  the  Alert  got  into  safety  at 
Floeberg  Beach — Low  temperatures — Nares  on  sledging — Description  of 
the  sledges  and  their  burden— Markham  starts  for  the  Pole— Reaches 
83°  20'  26"— Outbreak  of  scurvy— Parr's  walk— Aldrich's  journey  west— 
— Beaumont's  journey  east — The  perilous  homeward  voyage. 

EDY  FRANKLIN,  who  incidentally  did  so  much 
for  Arctic  discovery,  sent  out  the  Isabel  in  1852 
under  Commander,  afterwards  Sir,  Edward  Augustus 
Inglefield  to  search  for  her  husband  to  the  north  of 
Baffin  Bay.  Unlike  John  Ross,  the  names  of  whose 
ships,  Isabella  and  Alexander,  are  borne  by  the  capes 
at  its  entrance,  he  found  Smith  Sound  to  be  the  high- 
way to  the  north.  Steaming  up  the  open  water 
"stretching  through  seven  points  of  the  compass," 
noting  the  coasts  as  he  went,  he  was  turned  back  by  the 
ice  in  78°  28',  at  the  entrance  to  the  Kane  Sea,  with 
Cairn  Point  and  the  way  in  to  Rensselaer  Harbour  on 
his  right,  and  Cape  Sabine  and  Ellesmere  Land,  which 
he  named,  on  his  left;  the  furthest  north  he  sighted 
being  Cape  Louis  Napoleon,  the  furthest  east  Cape 
Frederick  VII,  now  known  as  Cape  Russell.  Needless 

235 


236  SMITH   SOUND 

to  say  he  found  no  Franklin  traces,  although  he  really 
looked  for  them. 

Twelve  months  afterwards  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane  in 
the  United  States  brig  Advance  followed  in  his  track 
and  wintered  in  Rensselaer  Harbour,  nine  miles  further 
north.  Ostensibly  Kane  was  on  a  Franklin  search,  but 
his  real  object  was  the  Pole.  He  explored  the  sea 
named  after  him,  naming  many  landmarks,  not  always 
placing  them  in  their  true  positions,  and  underwent 
many  hardships.  For  one  mistake  he  was  famous  for 
a  time,  and  his  reputation  now  suffers.  One  of  his  ex- 
pedition, William  Morton,  almost  reached  Cape  Consti- 
tution, in  about  80|°,  which  he  placed  some  sixty 
miles  too  far  north,  and  described  as  the  corner  of  the 
north  coast  of  Greenland  ;  and  from  the  southern  horn 
of  the  bay  of  which  it  is  the  northern  boundary  he 
looked  out  over  the  south  of  Kennedy  Channel,  which 
is  open  every  summer,  and  mistook  it  for  the  Polar 
Sea.  And  he  returned  with  a  report  of  an  even  more 
wonderful  discovery  than  the  Polar  Sea,  for,  according 
to  the  illustration,  he  beheld  the  midnight  sun  dipping 
in  its  waters  on  Midsummer  Day. 

In  May,  1854,  the  month  before  Morton's  discoveries, 
Dr.  Hayes  and  William  Godfrey  crossed  the  Kane  Sea 
to  connect  the  northern  coast  with  Inglefield's  survey, 
"  but  it  disclosed  no  channel  or  any  form  of  exit  from 
the  bay,"  being,  in  fact,  Ellesmere  Land  continued,  and 
yet  on  reaching  the  shore  for  the  first  time  at  Hayes 
Point,  three  miles  north  of  Cape  Louis  Napoleon,  and 
following  it  for  two  miles  to  Cape  Frazer,  they  quite 
unnecessarily  named  the  country  Grinnell  Land.  On 
the  other  side  of  this  sea  the  chief  discovery  was 


•  v    ft***  » 

w/    u,     r  ,f     ^ 


^ 

KALUTUNAH 


To  face  page  236 


KALUTUNAH   THE   ESKIMO  237 

Kane's  Humboldt  glacier,  some  fifty  miles  north-east 
of  their  winter  quarters,  which  was  described  as  "  the 
mighty  crystal  bridge  which  connects  the  two  continents 
of  America  and  Greenland,"  when,  of  course,  it  does 
nothing  of  the  sort. 

What  with  sickness,  accident,  and  other  disaster,  it 
became  evident  that  the  Advance  would  never  leave  her 
wintering  place,  and  in  July  Kane  set  off  on  a  wild 
endeavour  to  reach  Beechey  Island  and  obtain  relief 
from  the  Franklin  search  vessels,  but  he  had  to  return. 
Next  month  Hayes  was  sent  to  Upernivik,  but  he  also 
came  back.  Finally  in  May,  1855,  the  brig  was  aban- 
doned and  the  survivors  began  their  journey  to  the 
south.  Fortunately  on  the  outward  voyage  Kane,  at 
Fiskernaes,  had  engaged  Hans  Hendrik  the  Green- 
lander,  then  a  boy  of  nineteen,  who  became  quite  a 
prominent  figure  in  this  and  subsequent  voyages,  and 
without  him  and  Kalutunah,  chief  of  the  Etah  Eskimos, 
the  whole  party  would  have  perished  miserably. 

Hans  first  appears  when  spearing  a  bird  on  the  wing ; 
Kalutunah's  first  appearance  was  equally  encouraging. 
"  The  leader  of  the  party,"  says  Kane,  "  was  a  noble 
savage,  greatly  superior  in  everything  to  the  others  of 
his  race.  He  greeted  me  with  respectful  courtesy,  yet 
as  one  who  might  rightfully  expect  an  equal  measure 
of  it  in  return,  and,  after  a  short  interchange  of  saluta- 
tions, seated  himself  in  the  post  of  honour  at  my  side. 
I  waited,  of  course,  till  the  company  had  fed  and  slept, 
for  among  savages  especially  haste  is  indecorous,  and 
then,  after  distributing  a  few  presents,  opened  to  them 
my  project  of  a  northern  exploration.  Kalutunah 
received  his  knife  and  needles  with  a  '  Kuyanaka,'  '  I 


238  SMITH   SOUND 

thank  you ' ;  the  first  thanks  I  have  heard  from  a  native 
of    this   upper   region.      He    called   me   his   friend— 
'  Asakaoteet,'  '  I  love  you  well ' — and  would  be  happy, 
he  said,  to  join  the  nalegak-soak  in  a  hunt." 

And  the  journey  ended  in  a  hunt,  for  the  dogs  caught 
sight  of  a  large  male  bear  in  the  act  of  devouring  a  seal. 
The  impulse  was  irresistible  ;  Kane  lost  all  control  over 
both  dogs  and  drivers,  who  seemed  dead  to  everything 
but  the  passion  of  pursuit.  Off  they  sped  with  in- 
credible speed ;  the  Eskimos  clinging  to  their  sledges 
and  cheering  their  dogs  with  loud  cries.  A  mad,  wild 
chase,  wilder  than  German  legend — "  the  dogs,  wolves ; 
the  drivers,  devils."  After  a  furious  run,  the  animal 
was  brought  to  bay,  and  the  lance  and  rifle  did  their 
work.  There  were  more  bears  and  more  hunts,  and 
when  Kane  objected  that  this  could  hardly  be  called 
northern  exploration,  he  was  told  by  Kalutunah,  sig- 
nificantly, that  the  bear-meat  was  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  support  of  their  families,  and  that  the  nalegak- 
soak  had  no  right  to  prevent  him  from  providing  for 
his  household.  "  It  was  a  strong  argument,"  says 
Kane,  "and  withal  the  argument  of  the  strong." 

Bear-hunting  hereabouts  has  its  dangers,  for  the 
Eskimos  of  the  north  are  not  armed  with  bows  and 
arrows  as  are  those  of  the  mainland.  When  the  bear 
is  found  the  dogs  are  set  upon  the  trail,  and  the  hunter 
runs  by  their  side  in  silence.  As  he  turns  the  angle 
ahead  his  game  is  in  view  before  him,  stalking  probably 
along  with  quiet  march,  sometimes  sniffing  the  air 
suspiciously,  but  making,  nevertheless,  for  a  clump  of 
hummocks.  The  dogs  spring  forward,  opening  in  a 
wild  wolfish  yell,  the  driver  shrieking  "  Nannook ! 


AN   ESKIMO   BEAR-HUNT  239 

nannook ! "  and  all  straining  every  nerve  in  pursuit. 
The  bear  rises  on  his  haunches,  views  his  pursuers, 
and  starts  off  at  full  speed.  The  hunter,  as  he  runs, 
leaning  over  his  sledge,  seizes  the  traces  of  a  couple  of 
his  dogs  and  liberates  them  from  their  burden.  It  is 
the  work  of  a  minute  ;  for  the  speed  is  not  checked  and 
the  remaining  dogs  rush  on  with  apparent  ease.  Pressed 
more  severely,  the  bear  stands  at  bay  while  his  two 
foremost  pursuers  halt  at  a  short  distance  and  quietly 
await  the  arrival  of  the  hunter.  At  this  moment  the 
whole  pack  are  liberated ;  the  hunter  grasps  his  lance, 
and,  stumbling  through  the  snow  and  ice,  prepares  for 
the  encounter.  Grasping  the  lance  firmly  in  his  hands 
he  provokes  the  animal  to  pursue  him  by  moving 
rapidly  across  its  path,  and  then  running  as  if  to  escape. 
But  hardly  is  its  long  body  extended  for  the  tempting 
chase,  before,  with  a  quick  jump,  the  hunter  doubles 
on  his  track,  and,  as  the  bear  turns  after  him  again, 
the  lance  is  plunged  into  the  left  side  below  the 
shoulder ;  and  that  so  dexterously,  that,  if  it  be  an 
inch  or  so  wide  of  the  proper  spot,  the  spear  has 
to  be  left  in  the  bear  and  the  man  has  to  run  for 
his  life. 

At  this  hazardous  work  Kalutunah  was  an  adept,  and 
he  was  equally  skilful  at  a  much  less  dangerous  game, 
as  Dr.  Hayes  was  to  discover  when  wintering  in  the 
schooner  United  States  in  Foulke  Harbour,  further 
south,  in  1860-61.  Hayes  wished  to  learn  how  to 
catch  auks,  and  the  Eskimo  gave  him  a  lesson. 
Kalutunah  carried  a  small  net,  made  of  light  strings  of 
sealskin  knitted  together,  the  staff  by  which  it  was  held 
being  about  ten  feet  in  length.  Arriving  about  half-way 


240  SMITH   SOUND 

up  the  cliffs  he  crouched  behind  a  rock  and  invited  the 
doctor  to  follow  his  example.  The  slope  on  which  the 
birds  were  congregated  was  about  a  mile  long,  and  in 
vast  flocks  they  were  sweeping  over  it  a  few  feet  above 
the  stones  down  the  whole  length  of  the  hill,  returning 
higher  in  the  air,  and  so  round  and  round  in  a  complete 
circuit.  Occasionally  a  few  hundreds  or  thousands 
would  drop  down  as  if  following  some  leader,  and  in 
an  instant  the  rocks,  for  some  distance,  would  swarm 
with  them  as  they  speckled  the  hill  with  their  black 
backs  and  white  breasts.  The  doctor  was  told  to  lie 
lower,  as  the  birds  noticed  him  and  were  flying  too 
far  overhead.  Having  placed  himself  as  Kalutunah 
approved,  the  birds  began  to  sweep  lower  and  lower 
in  their  flight  until  their  track  came  well  within  reach. 
Then,  as  a  dense  portion  of  the  crowd  approached,  up 
went  the  net,  and  half  a  dozen  birds  flew  into  it,  and, 
stunned  by  the  blow,  could  not  recover  before  the 
Eskimo  had  slipped  the  staff  through  his  hands  and 
seized  the  net.  With  his  left  hand  he  pressed  down 
the  birds,  while  with  the  right  he  drew  them  out  one 
by  one,  and,  for  want  of  a  third  hand,  used  his  teeth  to 
crush  their  heads.  The  wings  were  then  locked  across 
each  other ;  and  with  an  air  of  triumph  the  old  chief 
looked  around,  spat  the  blood  and  feathers  from  his 
mouth,  and  went  on  with  the  sport,  tossing  up  his  net 
and  hauling  it  in  with  much  rapidity  until  he  had 
caught  about  a  hundred,  and  wanted  no  more. 

Hayes  did  his  best  to  disparage  both  Kalutunah  and 
Hans,  to  whom  he  was  not  quite  so  much  indebted  as 
Kane,  owing  to  his  having  given  himself  a  better  chance 
of  retreat  by  not  taking  the  schooner  out  of  Smith 


To  face  page  240 


THE   HAYES   EXPEDITION  241 

Sound,  his  quarters  in  Hartstene  Bay  being  only  some 
twelve  miles  north  of  Cape  Alexander.  He  had  come 
to  verify  the  existence  of  the  open  sea  and  sail  to  the 
Pole  across  it  if  he  could ;  and  he  verified  it  to  his 
own  satisfaction.  But  he  did  not  get  so  far  north  as 
Morton,  although  he  claimed  to  have  done  so,  for  he 
climbed  a  cliff  eight  hundred  feet  high  and  looked  out 
over  the  open  water — in  Kennedy  Channel — and  did 
not  see  the  Greenland  cliffs  trending  away  northwards 
within  thirty  miles  of  him,  and  visible  all  the  way  up 
for  two  degrees  north  of  Cape  Constitution.  Thus  he 
left  the  map  as  Kane  left  it,  with  Greenland  cut  off 
short  south  of  the  eighty-first  parallel,  and  his  farthest 
seems  to  have  been  the  south  point  of  Rawlings  Bay, 
where  the  Alert  was  forced  on  shore  in  August,  1876, 
in  80°  15'. 

"  I  climbed,"  he  says,  "  the  steep  hillside  to  the  top 
of  a  ragged  cliff,  which  I  supposed  to  be  about  eight 
hundred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea.  The  view 
which  I  had  from  this  elevation  furnished  a  solution  of 
the  cause  of  my  progress  being  arrested  on  the  previous 
day.  The  ice  was  everywhere  in  the  same  condition  as 
in  the  mouth  of  the  bay  across  which  I  had  endeavoured 
to  pass.  A  broad  crack,  starting  from  the  middle  of 
the  bay,  stretched  over  the  sea,  and  uniting  with  other 
cracks  as  it  meandered  to  the  eastward,  it  expanded  as 
the  delta  of  some  mighty  river  discharging  into  the 
ocean,  and  under  a  water-sky,  which  hung  upon  the 
northern  horizon,  it  was  lost  in  the  open  sea.  The  sea 
beneath  me  was  a  mottled  sheet  of  white  and  dark 
patches,  these  latter  being  either  soft  decaying  ice  or 
places  where  the  ice  had  wholly  disappeared.  These 


SMITH   SOUND 

spots  were  heightened  in  intensity  of  shade  and  multi- 
plied in  size  as  they  receded,  until  the  belt  of  the 
water-sky  blended  them  all  together  into  one  uniform 
colour  of  dark  blue.  The  old  and  solid  floes  (some  a 
quarter  of  a  mile,  and  others  miles  across)  and  the 
massive  ridges  and  wastes  of  hummocked  ice  which 
lay  piled  between  them  and  around  their  margins,  were 
the  only  parts  of  the  sea  which  retained  the  whiteness 
and  solidity  of  winter." 

Unfortunately  for  Hayes,  the  astronomer  of  the 
expedition,  August  Sonntag,  who  had  assisted  Kane  in 
the  same  capacity,  was  frozen  to  death  on  a  sledge 
journey,  and  the  doctor  was  left  to  do  the  work  for 
himself,  with  disappointing  results,  as  with  errors  of 
many  miles  in  either  latitude  or  longitude  his  journeys 
can  only  be  noticed  in  a  very  general  way.  In  October, 
1860,  he  proceeded  for  some  distance  over  the  glacier 
to  the  east  of  his  wintering  place.  The  first  attempt  to 
scale  the  glacier  was  attended  by  what  might  have  been 
a  serious  accident.  The  foremost  member  of  the  party 
missed  his  footing  as  he  was  clambering  up  the  rude 
steps,  and,  sliding  down  the  steep  side,  scattered  those 
who  were  below  him  to  the  right  and  left  and  sent  them 
rolling  into  the  valley  beneath.  The  next  effort  was 
more  successful,  and,  the  end  of  a  rope  being  carried 
over  the  side  of  the  glacier,  the  sledge  was  drawn  up 
the  inclined  plane  and  a  fair  start  obtained.  A  little 
further  on  Hayes  was  only  saved  from  disappearing 
down  a  crevasse  by  clutching  a  pole  he  was  carrying  on 
his  shoulder.  Next  day,  the  surface  being  smoother, 
more  progress  was  made,  and  they  reached  a  plain  of 
compact  snow  covered  with  a  crust  through  which  the 


THE  JOURNEY  ON  THE  GLACIER 
feet  broke  at  every  step.  The  day  afterwards  the  cold 
grew  more  intense  and  a  gale  came  on.  At  night  the 
men  complained  bitterly  and  could  not  sleep,  and  as  the 
storm  increased  in  strength  they  were  forced  to  leave  the 
tent  and  by  active  exercise  prevent  themselves  from 
freezing. 

To  face  the  wind  was  impossible,  and  shelter  was 
nowhere  to  be  found  upon  the  unbroken  plain,  there 
being  but  one  direction  in  which  they  could  move,  that 
being  with  their  backs  to  the  gale.  It  was  not  without 
difficulty  that  the  tent  was  taken  down  and  bundled 
upon  the  sledge,  the  wind  blowing  so  fiercely  that  they 
could  scarcely  roll  it  up  with  their  stiffened  hands. 
The  men  were  in  pain  and  could  only  hold  on  for  a  few 
moments  to  the  hardened  canvas,  their  fingers,  freezing 
continually,  requiring  vigorous  pounding  to  keep  them 
on  the  flickering  verge  of  life.  "  In  the  midst  of  a  vast 
frozen  Sahara,  with  neither  hill,  mountain,  nor  gorge 
anywhere  in  view,"  says  Hayes,  "fitful  clouds  swept 
over  the  face  of  the  full-orbed  moon,  which,  descending 
toward  the  horizon,  glimmered  through  the  drifting 
snow  that  whirled  out  of  the  illimitable  distance,  and 
scudded  over  the  icy  plain,  to  the  eye  in  undulating 
lines  of  downy  softness,  to  the  flesh  in  showers  of 
piercing  darts.  Our  only  safety  was  in  flight ;  and  like 
a  ship  driven  before  a  tempest  which  she  cannot  with- 
stand, and  which  has  threatened  her  ruin,  we  turned 
our  backs  to  the  gale  ;  and,  hastening  down  the  slope, 
we  ran  to  save  our  lives.  We  travelled  upwards  of 
forty  miles,  and  had  descended  about  three  thousand 
feet  before  we  ventured  to  halt." 

Next   year   he  visited  the   large   glacier   in   Whale 


244  SMITH   SOUND 

Sound  which  he  named  after  Professor  John  Tyndall, 
pulling  first  along  its  front  in  a  boat  and  then  mounting 
its  surface.  As  he  rowed  along  within  a  few  fathoms 
of  this  two  miles  of  ice,  he  found  the  face  "  worn  and 
wasted  away  until  it  seemed  like  the  front  of  some  vast 
incongruous  temple,  here  a  groined  roof  of  some 
huge  cathedral,  and  there  a  pointed  window  or  a 
Norman  doorway  deeply  moulded  ;  while  on  all  sides 
were  pillars  round  and  fluted  and  pendants  dripping 
crystal  drops  of  the  purest  water,  and  all  bathed  in  a 
soft  blue  atmosphere.  Above  these  wondrous  archways 
and  galleries  there  was  still  preserved  the  same  Gothic 
character ;  tall  spires  and  pinnacles  rose  along  the 
entire  front  and  multiplied  behind  them,  and  new  forms 
met  the  eye  continually.  Strange,  there  was  nothing 
cold  or  forbidding  anywhere.  The  ice  seemed  to  take 
the  warmth  which  suffused  the  air,  and  I  longed  to  pull 
my  boat  far  within  the  opening  and  paddle  beneath  the 
Gothic  archways." 

Charles  Francis  Hall,  of  Cincinnati,  was  a  man  of  a 
very  different  stamp.  He  was  a  genius  and  a  genuine 
worker,  an  accurate  observer  and  painstaking  explorer 
who  believed  above  all  things  in  thoroughness. 
Realising  that  the  best  way  to  study  the  Polar  regions 
was  to  understand  the  Eskimos,  who  know  most  about 
them,  and  utilise  their  local  knowledge,  he  settled 
amongst  them,  lived  with  them,  adopted  their  customs, 
and  became  as  one  of  them  in  their  huts  and  tents, 
taking  part  in  their  sports  and  hardships.  Two  friends 
he  made  amongst  them,  Ebierbing  and  his  wife  Took- 
oolito,  better  known  as  Joe  and  Hannah,  who  accom- 
panied him  till  he  died. 


CHARLES   FRANCIS   HALL  245 

After  clearing  up  the  Frobisher  problem  and  throwing 
some  light  on  the  Franklin  mystery,  he  started  in  1871 
to  go  as  far  north  as  he  could  across  the  reported  Polar 
Sea.  To  him  Henry  Grinnell,  who  did  so  much  for 
northern  discovery,  entrusted  the  American  flag  which 
had  been  to  the  Antarctic  with  Wilkes  in  1838,  to  the 
Arctic  with  De  Haven,  with  Kane  and  with  Hayes, 
and  was  a  sort  of  oriflamme  of  Polar  discovery.  His 
ship  was  the  Polaris,  of  387  tons,  once  the  Periwinkle, 
a  name  which  seemed  to  be  a  little  too  unassuming. 
Buddington,  his  sailing-master,  was  an  experienced 
whaling  captain ;  his  assistant,  Tyson,  destined  for  the 
independent  command  of  an  ice-floe,  was  another 
whale -fisher.  The  naturalist  was  Emil  Bessels.  On 
board  were  also  Joe  and  Hannah — of  course — and 
William  Morton,  to  show  where  the  sea  was,  and, 
picked  up  at  Upernivik,  the  indispensable  Hans 
Hendrik  with  his  wife  and  three  children. 

The  voyage  was  fortunate  so  long  as  Hall  lived. 
The  Polaris  found  the  Polar  gates  open  before  her. 
She  steamed  right  up  Smith  Sound,  through  Kane  Sea, 
up  Kennedy  Channel,  into  Robeson  Channel — named 
after  the  Secretary  to  the  American  Navy — until  she 
reached  the  ice,  in  82°  16',  on  the  30th  of  August,  1871, 
the  highest  latitude  then  attained  by  a  ship.  Hall 
would  have  pressed  on  into  the  ice,  but  Buddington 
wisely  refused,  and  hardly  had  the  Polaris  been  headed 
round  when  she  was  beset  and  carried  southwards,  to 
escape  in  a  few  days  and  take  refuge  for  the  winter  in 
a  harbour  on  the  east  of  what  is  now  known  as  Hall 
Basin,  protected  at  its  entrance  by  a  grounded  floeberg. 
The  latitude  is  81°  38',  the  harbour  Hall  called  Thank 


246  SMITH   SOUND 

God  Bay.  There  in  November  he  died  ;  and  close  by 
is  Hall's  Rest,  where  he  is  buried. 

His  death  was  the  end  of  the  enterprise.  Budding- 
tori  wished  to  return  as  soon  as  the  ship  was  released, 
and  eventually  had  his  way,  after  a  journey  or  two  of 
little  importance.  But  he  stayed  too  long.  The  ship 
was  clear  in  June,  and  he  did  not  start  until  the  1st  of 
August,  and  he  started  by  driving  her  into  the  pack, 
anchored  her  to  a  floe,  and  drifted  helplessly  into 
Baffin  Bay,  as  De  Haven  had  done  through  Lancaster 
Sound  in  1850.  For  eleven  weeks  the  drift  continued 
until  she  was  off  Northumberland  Island  on  the  15th 
of  October.  Here  in  the  middle  of  the  night  a  violent 
gale  arose,  and  the  crippled  ship,  nipped  between  two 
masses  of  ice,  was  lifted  bodily  and  thrown  on  her  side, 
her  timbers  cracking  loudly  and  her  sides  apparently 
breaking  in.  Two  boats,  all  she  had,  were  hurriedly 
got  on  to  the  ice,  and  provisions,  stores,  and  clothing 
were  being  passed  out,  when  with  a  roar  the  floe 
broke  asunder,  and  the  Polaris  disappeared  like  a 
phantom  in  the  gale.  As  the  ice  cracked  and  the 
sides  lurched  apart,  a  bundle  of  fur  lay  across  the 
fissure.  A  grab  was  made  at  it,  and  the  bundle  was 
saved.  It  contained  the  baby  of  Joe  the  Eskimo, 
whose  wife  had  been  confined  the  year  before  in  lati- 
tude 82°,  perhaps  the  most  northerly  birthplace  of  any 
of  this  world's  inhabitants. 

On  the  ice  were  Tyson,  with  Sergeant  Meyer,  the 
steward,  the  cook,  six  sailors,  and  nine  Eskimos,  men, 
women,  and  children,  including  Hans  and  Joe.  They 
built  a  house,  from  the  materials  thrown  out  from  the 
ship,  as  a  shelter ;  and  they  built  snow  houses  as  the  time 


THE  VOYAGE   ON  THE  FLOE  247 

went  on  and  the  floe  diminished.  Provisions  they  had 
but  few,  but  Hans  and  Joe  were  indefatigable.  They 
speared  seals,  caught  fish,  trapped  birds,  and,  some- 
times, a  bear  would  scramble  up  on  to  the  ice  for  them 
to  shoot — and  they  never  missed.  In  short,  without 
them  the  party  would  have  starved  to  death. 

The  floe  on  which  the  castaways  passed  the  winter 
was  about  a  hundred  yards  long  and  seventy-five  broad. 
On  this  they  voyaged  down  the  whole  length  of  Baffin 
Bay  and  through  Davis  Strait,  the  ice  melting  away 
and  getting  smaller  and  smaller  as  they  drifted  south, 
until  on  the  1st  of  April,  when  it  was  only  twenty 
yards  round,  they  had  to  take  to  the  remaining  boat, 
the  other  having  been  used  for  fuel.  Once  they  nearly 
touched  the  shore,  but  the  wind  rose  and  off  they  were 
driven  in  the  snow.  When  they  were  picked  up  by  the 
sealer  Tigress  in  53°  35',  near  the  coast  of  Labrador,  on 
the  30th  of  April,  they  had  drifted  fifteen  hundred  miles 
in  the  hundred  and  ninety-six  days  that  had  elapsed 
since  they  left  the  ship. 

The  Polaris,  blown  to  the  northward,  reached  land 
at  Lifeboat  Cove  in  the  entrance  to  Smith  Sound,  a 
little  north  of  Foulke  Harbour,  and  here  with  the  aid 
of  the  Etah  Eskimos  the  crew  passed  the  winter ;  and, 
in  the  spring,  some  of  them  went  on  an  expedition  in 
the  Hayes  country  and  lost  the  famous  flag.  As  the 
ship  could  not  be  made  seaworthy,  two  flat-bottomed 
boats  were  built  of  her  materials,  and  on  the  21st  of 
June  these  were  found  hauled  up  on  a  floe  in  Melville 
Bay,  and  their  people  rescued  by  the  whaler  Ravenscraig, 
which  shifted  them  into  the  Arctic,  another  Dundee 
whaler,  on  board  of  which  was  Commander  Markham, 


248  SMITH   SOUND 

who,  with  Hans  Hendrik,  four  years  afterwards,  was  to 
follow  up  Hall's  track  to  the  north. 

The  results  of  this  expedition  were  of  considerable 
importance.  In  five  days  Captain  Hall  had  run  five 
hundred  miles  through  what  on  most  occasions  has  been 
found  to  be  an  ice-choked  sea.  He  completed  the 
exploration  of  Kennedy  Channel,  discovered  Hall 
Basin  and  Robeson  Channel,  and  was  the  first  to  reach 
the  Polar  ocean  by  this  route.  Greenland  and  Grinnell 
Land  he  extended  northward  for  nearly  a  hundred  and 
forty  miles ;  and,  north  of  Petermann  Fiord,  where  he 
showed  that  the  inland  ice  terminated,  he  had  found  a 
large  area  free  from  ice,  with  its  wild  flowers  and 
herbage  and  musk  oxen. 

Hall's  remarkable  success  in  taking  a  ship  to  so  high 
a  latitude  led  to  the  Government  expedition  of  1875, 
the  first  British  attempt  to  reach  the  Pole  since  Parry's 
failure  in  1827.  Three  ships  were  employed  :  the  Alert, 
a  seventeen-gun  sloop ;  the  Discovery,  once  the  Blood- 
hound,  a  Dundee  whaler ;  and  the  Valorous.  The 
Alert  and  Discovery  were  specially  prepared  for  the 
voyage  at  Portsmouth  by  Sir  Leopold  M'Clintock  who 
was  then  Admiral  Superintendent  of  the  dockyard; 
the  Valorous,  an  old  paddle  sloop,  required  little  altera- 
tion, as  her  duty  was  merely  to  carry  the  stores  that 
could  not  safely  be  taken  by  the  exploring  vessels  in 
crossing  the  Atlantic  and  hand  them  over  at  Disco. 

The  leader,  Captain  George  Strong  Nares,  when  one 
of  the  Franklin  search  officers  under  Kellett  at  Melville 
Island,  had  distinguished  himself  by  a  sledge  journey 
in  which  he  had  travelled  nine  hundred  and  eighty 
miles  in  sixty -nine  days  and  reached  119j°  west 


SIR   GEORGE   NARES 


To  face  page  248 


THE  NARES  EXPEDITION  249 

longitude.  He  was  known  as  one  of  the  best  navigators 
in  the  Navy,  and  when  called  upon  to  go  to  the  north 
was  in  command  of  H.M.S.  Challenger,  then  on  her 
famous  voyage  of  scientific  exploration  in  very  different 
seas.  With  him  in  the  Alert  was  Commander  Albert 
Hastings  Markham,  whose  experience,  varied  and  con- 
siderable, gained  by  his  spending  much  of  his  spare 
time  within  the  Arctic  Circle,  rendered  him  especially 
well  fitted  for  the  position.  In  command  of  the  Dis- 
covery was  Captain  Henry  Frederick  Stephenson ;  and 
the  officers  of  both  ships  were,  like  the  crews,  all 
specially  selected.  There  was  no  difficulty  in  the 
manning.  One  commanding  officer  called  at  the  office 
at  Portsmouth  where  the  men  were  being  entered  and 
asked  for  advice.  "  An  order,"  he  said,  "  has  come  on 
board  my  ship,  directing  me  to  send  volunteers  for 
Arctic  service  to  this  office.  What  am  I  to  do  ?  The 
whole  ship's  company,  nearly  eight  hundred  men,  have 
given  in  their  names." 

The  three  ships  left  Spithead  on  the  29th  of  May, 
1875,  and  were  all  at  Godhavn  on  the  6th  of  July. 
Nine  days  afterwards  they  left  for  Ritenbenk  of  the 
curious  name,  which  is  an  anagram  of  that  of  Berkentin 
who  was  in  charge  of  the  Greenland  department  when 
it  was  founded.  Here  the  Valorous  parted  company  to 
return  home  after  filling  up  with  fuel  at  the  coal 
quarries  on  the  north  side  of  Disco  Island,  while  the 
two  ships  went  to  Proven  to  pick  up  Hans  Hendrik, 
who  this  time  left  his  wife  and  children  behind  him. 

Through  Smith  Sound,  almost  choked  with  ice, 
progress  was  slow  and  difficult ;  but  the  passage  was 
safely  accomplished,  and  so  across  Kane  Sea  and  up 


250  SMITH   SOUND 

Kennedy  Channel.  On  Washington  Irving  Island  an 
ancient  cairn  was  found,  evidently  the  work  of  white 
men's  hands  and  of  great  age,  as  shown  by  the  state  of 
the  lichens  on  it — yet  another  of  the  many  indications 
in  the  Polar  regions  that  there  was  always  a  somebody 
before  the  first  on  record.  Crossing  the  mouth  of 
Archer  Fiord,  a  snug  harbour  was  found  in  81°  44', 
where  the  Discovery  was  left  to  spend  the  winter,  the 
Alert  going  on,  hampered  much  by  the  floes,  though 
helped  at  last  by  a  south-westerly  wind,  until  she  had 
to  stop  in  82°  27'  on  the  shore  of  the  Polar  Ocean,  at 
what  was  named  Floeberg  Beach,  off  an  open  coast 
and  with  no  more  protection  during  the  winter  than 
was  afforded  by  masses  of  ice  ranging  up  to  sixty  feet 
in  height  aground  in  from  eight  to  twelve  fathoms  of 
water. 

"The  protected  space,"  says  Nares,  "available  for 
shelter  was  so  contracted  and  shallow,  the  entrance  to 
it  so  small,  and  the  united  force  of  the  wind  and  flood- 
tide  so  powerful,  that  it  was  with  much  labour  and  no 
trifling  expense  in  broken  hawsers  that  the  ship  was 
hauled  in  stern  foremost.  It  was  a  close  race  whether 
the  ice  or  the  ship  would  be  in  first,  and  my  anxiety 
was  much  relieved  when  I  saw  the  ship's  bow  swing 
clear  into  safety  just  as  the  advancing  edge  of  the 
heavy  pack  closed  in  against  the  outside  of  our  friendly 
barrier  of  ice.  From  our  position  of  comparative 
security  the  danger  we  had  so  narrowly  escaped  was 
strikingly  apparent  as  we  gazed  with  wonder  and  awe 
at  the  power  exerted  by  the  ice  driven  past  us  to  the 
eastward  with  irresistible  force  by  the  wind  and  flood- 
tide  at  the  rate  of  about  a  mile  an  hour.  The  pro- 


FLOEBERG   BEACH  251 

jecting  points  of  each  passing  floe  which  grounded  near 
the  shore  in  about  ten  fathoms  of  water  would  be  at 
once  wrenched  off  from  its  still  moving  parent  mass ; 
the  pressure  continuing,  the  several  pieces,  frequently 
thirty  thousand  tons  in  weight,  would  be  forced  up  the 
inclined  shore,  rising  slowly  and  majestically  ten  or 
twelve  feet  above  their  old  line  of  flotation.  Such 
pieces  quickly  accumulated  until  a  rampart-like  barrier 
of  solid  ice-blocks,  measuring  about  two  hundred  yards 
in  breadth  and  rising  fifty  feet  high,  lined  the  shore, 
locking  us  in,  but  effectually  protecting  us  from  the 
overwhelming  power  of  the  pack."  The  land  had 
already  assumed  a  wintry  aspect,  and  the  ship  soon 
put  on  a  garb  of  snow  and  ice,  each  spar  and  rope 
being  double  its  ordinary  thickness  from  the  accumula- 
tion of  rime.  Around  her  everything  was  white  and 
solemn ;  no  voice  of  bird  or  beast  was  heard ;  all  was 
still  and  silent  save  the  gathering  floes ;  and  in  two 
days  the  men  were  able  to  walk  on  shore  over  the  new 
ice. 

For  eleven  months  she  stayed  here,  secured  by  cables 
to  anchors  frozen  on  to  the  shore  to  protect  her  from 
gales  on  the  landward  side.  With  the  ship  housed  in 
awnings  of  tilt-cloth,  with  snow  a  foot  thick  laid  on 
the  upper  deck  and  banked  up  on  each  side  as  high  as 
the  main-chains,  with  skylights  and  hatchways  carefully 
covered  up,  except  two  hatchways  for  ingress  and 
egress  constructed  with  porches  and  double  doors  so  as 
to  prevent  the  entrance  of  the  bitter  air,  the  crew  here 
passed  the  long  Polar  night.  On  the  llth  of  October 
the  sun  disappeared,  and  then  began  those  entertain- 
ments, lectures,  lessons,  games,  not  forgetting  the 


252  SMITH   SOUND 

Royal  Arctic  Theatre  which  opened  on  the  18th  of 
November,  with  which  the  winter  was  pleasantly  whiled 
away.  "  Can  you  sing  or  dance  ?  or  what  can  you  do 
for  the  amusement  of  others  ? "  every  man  had  been 
asked  before  he  was  chosen,  and  the  result  was  a 
singularly  happy  time  kept  up  until  sunrise. 

The  cold  was  intense  and  long-continued.  Even  the 
tobacco  pipes  froze,  the  stem  becoming  solidly  clogged 
with  ice  as  the  smoking  went  on  unless  it  was  made  so 
short  as  to  bring  the  bowl  unpleasantly  close  to  the 
mouth.  On  the  1st  of  April  the  temperature  was 
down  to  minus  64°,  and  three  days  afterwards  it  was 
a  hundred  and  five  below  freezing,  the  cold  weather 
preventing  the  departure  of  the  dog-sledge  for  Dis- 
covery Bay. 

During  the  autumn,  sledging  parties  had  laid  out 
reserves  of  stores  for  the  spring  journeys,  and  a  certain 
amount  of  practice  had  been  given  to  the  men  in  what 
was  intended  to  be  the  chief  work  of  the  expedition. 
The  field,  however,  was  not  promising.  On  one  occa- 
sion Nares  went  out  to  look  at  it.  He  obtained  a  fine 
view  of  the  pack  for  a  distance  of  six  miles  from  the 
land.  The  southern  side  of  each  purely  white  snow- 
covered  hummock  was  brilliantly  lighted  by  the  orange- 
tinted  twilight.  The  stranded  floebergs  lining  the 
shore  extended  from  half  to  three-quarters  of  a  mile  off 
the  land.  Outside  were  old  floes  with  undulating 
upper  surfaces  separated  from  each  other  by  Sherard 
Osborn's  "hedgerows  of  Arctic  landscape,"  otherwise 
ridges  of  pressed-up  ice  of  every  size.  "  It  will  be  as 
difficult,"  was  his  verdict,  "  to  drag  a  sledge  over  such 
ice  as  to  transport  a  carriage  directly  across  country  in 


THE  SLEDGES  AND  THEIR  BURDEN          253 

England."  He  gave  a  lecture  on  sledging  at  one  of  the 
winter  entertainments.  It  was  interesting  but  not  en- 
couraging. He  told  his  hearers  that  if  they  could 
imagine  the  hardest  work  they  had  ever  been  called 
upon  to  perform  in  their  lives  intensified  to  the  utmost 
degree,  it  would  only  be  as  child's  play  in  comparison 
with  the  work  they  would  have  to  perform  whilst 
sledging.  "These  prophetic  words,"  says  Markham, 
"  were  fully  realised,  and  were  often  recalled  and  com- 
mented on  by  the  men." 

They  had  four  different  kinds  of  sledges.  From  the 
illustrations  it  will  appear  how  the  eight-feet  sledges 
differed  from  those  used  by  M'Clintock,  the  Nares 
sledge  being  higher  and  more  slender  in  the  uprights. 
The  eight-men  sledge,  such  as  the  Marco  Polo — which 
was  bound  for  the  Pole — had  six  uprights  eighteen 
inches  apart.  It  was  eleven  feet  long,  thirty-eight 
inches  wide,  eleven  inches  high,  and  weighed  one 
hundred  and  thirty  pounds.  The  tent,  made  of  light, 
unbleached  duck,  was  nine  feet  four  inches  long  at  the 
bottom,  eight  feet  at  the  top,  seven  feet  wide  and  high, 
and  weighed  forty-four  pounds.  The  tent  poles,  five 
in  number,  weighed  five  pounds  apiece.  The  coverlet 
weighed  thirty-one  pounds  and  a  half,  and  the  extra 
coverlet  twenty  pounds.  The  lower  robe  weighed 
twenty-three  pounds,  the  waterproof  floor-cloth  fifteen. 
The  eight  sleeping-bags  weighed  eight  pounds  apiece, 
and  the  eight  knapsacks,  when  packed,  twelve  pounds 
apiece.  The  shovel  and  two  pickaxes  accounted  for 
twenty-one  pounds,  the  store-bag  for  twenty-five,  the 
cooking  gear  for  twenty-nine,  the  gun  and  ammunition 
for  twenty-five,  the  medical  stores  for  twelve,  the 


254  SMITH   SOUND 

instruments  for  fifteen,  and  the  tent  for  nine  and  a 
quarter.  To  this  must  be  added  a  thousand  and  eighty 
pounds  for  forty-five  days'  provisions  for  the  eight  men, 
and  we  have  the  total  of  sixteen  hundred  and  sixty- 
four  pounds  odd,  which  with  seven  men  at  the  ropes 
gives  each  man  a  drag  of  about  two  hundred  and 
thirty-eight  pounds.  In  the  spring  the  weight  de- 
creases as  the  provisions  are  consumed,  but  the  rate  of 
decrease  is  not  the  same  in  the  autumn,  for  then  the 
steadily  falling  temperature  increases  the  weight  of  the 
outfit  by  the  moisture  it  adds  to  the  tent  and  clothing. 
In  Markham's  autumn  journey  the  tent  of  thirty-two 
pounds  came  back  as  fifty-five,  the  coverlet  as  forty- 
eight,  the  lower  robe  as  forty,  the  floor-cloth  as  forty, 
and  everything  else  was  heavier  than  at  the  start. 

The  sledges  mustered  for  their  journeys  on  the  3rd  of 
April.  Seven  in  number,  they  were  drawn  up  in  single 
line  according  to  the  seniority  of  the  leaders,  all  fully 
equipped  and  provisioned,  and  manned  by  fifty-three 
officers  and  men.  On  each  was  its  commander's  banner 
— a  swallow-tailed  flag  charged  with  a  St.  George's 
cross  and  displaying  the  armorial  bearings.  As  a  pre- 
caution against  snow-blindness,  the  men  had  been 
ordered  to  decorate  the  backs  of  their  snow-jumpers 
with  any  device  they  thought  fit,  the  result  being  a  dis- 
play of  comic  blazonry  that  often  formed  a  topic  of 
conversation  when  others  failed.  For  the  same  reason 
the  two  boats  carried  on  the  north-going  sledges  were 
gaily  decorated  with  the  royal  arms,  and  the  rose, 
shamrock,  and  thistle ;  the  artist,  as  on  other  occasions, 
being  Doctor  Moss,  whose  great  difficulty  in  the  matter 
was  that  in  spite  of  the  quantity  of  turpentine  used  in 


MARKHAM   AND   PARR  255 

mixing  the  paint  it  would  persist  in  freezing  so  that  the 
brush  became  as  stiff*  as  a  stick  every  few  seconds. 

Lieutenant  Aldrich,  supported  for  three  weeks  by 
Lieutenant  Giffard,  was  to  explore  the  shores  of  Grant 
Land,  towards  the  north  and  west,  along  the  coast-line 
he  had  discovered  in  the  previous  autumn.  Commander 
Markham,  seconded  by  Lieutenant  Parr,  was  to  accom- 
pany Aldrich  to  Cape  Joseph  Henry  and  then  strike  off 
to  the  northward  over  the  ice.  The  other  three  sledges 
were  to  accompany  these  as  far  as  their  own  provisions 
would  allow,  after  completing  the  four's  deficiencies  and 
giving  them  a  fresh  start  from  an  advance  post. 

When  Markham  was  only  eleven  days  out,  one  of  his 
crew  complained  of  pain  in  his  ankles  and  knees,  and 
was  of  no  help  for  the  rest  of  the  journey.  This  was 
the  first  appearance  of  the  scurvy  which  was  to  ruin  so 
many  hopes,  for  man  after  man  was  taken  ill  and 
became  a  passenger.  To  make  matters  worse  no 
rougher  road  was  ever  traversed  by  sledge.  Over  a 
labyrinth  of  piled-up  blocks  of  ice  ranging  to  forty  feet 
and  more  in  height,  through  which  the  road  had  to  be 
cut  with  pickaxe  and  shovel,  and  amid  gale  and  fog  and 
falling  snow,  the  painful  progress  went  on.  With  many 
a  "  One ;  two  ;  three  ;  haul ! "  the  heavy  mass  would  be 
dragged  where  the  men  could  hardly  drag  themselves  ; 
one  of  the  sledges  taken  a  few  yards  by  the  combined 
crews,  who  would  then  return  for  the  other.  On  the 
19th  of  April  one  of  the  boats  was  abandoned  and  this 
made  matters  easier,  but  only  for  a  time,  as  the  disease 
spread.  At  last  it  was  decided  to  stop ;  and  on  the 
12th  of  May  a  party  of  ten  went  ahead  to  reach  the 
farthest  north. 


256  SMITH  SOUND 

"The  walking,"  says  Markham,  "was  undoubtedly 
severe,  at  one  moment  struggling  through  deep  snow- 
drifts, in  which  we  floundered  up  to  our  waists,  and  at 
another  tumbling  about  amongst  the  hummocks. 
Some  idea  may  be  formed  of  the  difficulties  of  the 
road,  when,  after  more  than  two  hours'  hard  walking, 
with  little  or  nothing  to  carry,  we  had  barely  accom- 
plished one  mile.  Shortly  before  noon  a  halt  was 
called,  the  artificial  horizon  set  up,  and  the  flags  and 
sledge  standards  displayed.  Fortunately  the  sun  was 
favourable  to  us,  and  we  were  able  to  obtain  a  good 
altitude  as  it  passed  the  meridian,  although  almost 
immediately  afterwards  dark  clouds  rolled  up,  snow 
began  to  fall,  and  the  sun  was  lost  in  obscurity.  We 
found  the  latitude  to  be  83°  20'  26"  N.,  or  three 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  miles  and  a  half  from  the 
North  Pole." 

On  the  8th  of  June  Lieutenant  Parr  appeared  on 
the  quarter-deck  of  the  Alert  greeting  in  silence  the 
one  or  two  who  chanced  to  meet  him.  That  some 
calamity  had  happened  was  evident  from  his  looks. 
He  had  walked  on  alone  for  forty  miles  to  bring  the 
news  that  Markham's  party  were  in  sore  distress. 
Measures  of  rescue  were  instantly  taken ;  Lieutenant 
May  and  Doctor  Moss,  on  snow-shoes,  pushing  ahead 
with  the  dog-sledge  laden  with  medical  stores,  while 
Nares  with  a  strong  party  followed.  On  their  arrival 
one  man  had  died,  and  of  the  others  no  less  than 
eleven  were  brought  back  to  the  ship  on  the  relief 
sledges. 

Ten  days  afterwards,  fearing  a  similar  fate  had  over- 
taken Aldrich's  party,  Lieutenant  May  was  despatched 


ALDRICH  AND  BEAUMONT  257 

to  find  him.  As  with  Markham,  scurvy  had  begun  on 
the  outward  journey,  and  it  had  become  so  bad  on  the 
return  that  one  of  the  men  was  being  sent  off  to  the 
ship  when  May  arrived  with  help.  It  had  nevertheless 
been  a  successful  journey,  the  road  being  easier  than  that 
by  the  northern  route.  Aldrich  had  traced  the  continu- 
ous border  of  the  heavy  pack  for  two  hundred  miles  from 
Floeberg  Beach,  rounded  Cape  Columbia,  in  83°  7'  N., 
the  northernmost  point  of  Grant  Land,  and,  along  the 
coast  trending  steadily  south-west,  had  reached  longi- 
tude 85°  33'  and  sighted  Cape  Alfred  Ernest  in 
longitude  86j°. 

With  his  arrival  there  were  over  forty  scurvy  patients 
on  board  the  Alert ;  and  Nares  was  to  learn  that  the 
sledge  parties  from  the  Discovery  had  been  similarly 
affected.  Lieutenant  Beaumont  had  gone  along  the 
North  Greenland  coast,  reaching,  on  the  21st  of  May, 
51°  W.,  in  82°  20'  N.,  and  sighting  Cape  May,  Mount 
Hooker,  and  Cape  Britannia.  On  the  10th  of  May, 
while  on  his  outward  journey,  he  had  sent  back  Lieu- 
tenant Rawson  to  bring  a  relief  party  to  meet  him,  and 
Rawson  with  Hans  and  eight  dogs,  accompanied  by 
Doctor  Coppinger,  reached  him  on  the  25th  of  June 
when  he  was  on  his  last  possible  day's  journey,  he  and 
two  of  his  men  dragging  the  sledge  with  four  helpless 
comrades  lashed  on  the  top  of  it. 

The  Discovery  had  also  sent  out  Lieutenant  Archer 
to  survey  the  fiord  named  after  him,  which  opens  out 
into  Lady  Franklin  Bay;  and  Lieutenant  Fulford  had 
crossed  the  channel  and  explored  Petermann  Fiord. 
In  fact,  the  expedition's  geographical  work  was  of  great 
extent,  as  was  the  other  scientific  work,  the  most  im- 


258  SMITH   SOUND 

portant,  as  usual,  being  that  done  from  the  ships. 
Among  the  odds  and  ends  easily  rememberable  was  the 
haul  of  the  seine  in  Sheridan  Lake,  near  the  wintering 
station  of  the  Alert,  which  yielded  forty-three  char 
(Salmo  arcturus\  the  most  northerly  freshwater  fish; 
the  finding  of  the  nest  of  the  sanderling  (CaKdris 
arenarius],  now  in  the  Natural  History  Museum,  in 
82°  33',  and  the  discovery  of  the  nesting  of  the  grey 
phalarope  and  the  knot  in  the  same  neighbourhood ; 
the  thirty-feet  seam  of  Miocene  coal  worked  in  Dis- 
covery Harbour ;  and  the  Eskimo  relics  at  Cape 
Beechey,  near  the  eighty-second  parallel,  which,  in 
connection  with  the  encampments  on  the  opposite 
coast,  suggested  that  there,  at  the  narrowest  part  of 
Robeson  Channel,  had  been  a  crossing  place  from  shore 
to  shore. 

On  the  31st  of  July,  1876,  the  Alert  was  again  under 
steam  after  her  long  rest,  and  one  of  the  most  dangerous 
voyages  on  record  began.  The  ships,  of  from  five 
hundred  to  six  hundred  tons,  were  handled  as  if  they 
were  small  tugs ;  blocked,  beset,  pressed  on  shore, 
Nares  with  consummate  skill,  constant  watchfulness, 
and  never-failing  patience,  brought  them  through.  But 
they  did  not  get  out  of  Smith  Sound  until  the  9th  of 
September,  and  then  it  was  against  head  winds  in 
stormy  weather  amid  icebergs  innumerable  that  they 
were  slowly  worked  southwards  and  homewards. 


BISHOP   PAUL  EGEDE 


To  face  page  25? 


CHAPTER  XIII 
GREENLAND 

Hans  Egede — The  house  of  Eric  the  Red — Nansen's  crossing  of  Greenland — 
Nansen  and  Sverdrup  row  to  Ny  Herrnhut — Nordenskiold's  journeys — 
Berggren's  discovery — Nordenskiold  on  the  inland  ice — Glaciers  and  ice- 
bergs— Diatoms  and  whales — Edward  Whymper's  expedition — Greenland 
in  Miocene  times — Graah — Scoresby — Ryder — The  Germania  and  Hansa 
— The  Duke  of  Orleans — The  Eskimos  of  Clavering  Island — Franz  Josef 
Fiord — The  drift  of  the  Hansa — The  Greely  expedition — The  International 
Polar  stations — Voyage  of  the  Proteus — Lockwood  reaches  83°  24' — Greely 's 
wagon — The  Eskimo  house  at  Lake  Hazen — Greely  Relief  expeditions — 
The  rescue  of  Greely — Peary — His  journey  to  Independence  Bay — His 
four  years'  expedition — Reaches  84°  17' — His  Polar  expedition  of  1905 — 
The  Roosevelt — The  voyage  to  Cape  Sheridan — Plan  of  the  northern  ad- 
vance— Peary  reaches  87°  6' — Moxon's  mariner. 

HANS  EGEDE,  aged  twenty-two,  priest  of  the 
parish  of  Vaagen,  in  the  north  of  Norway, 
reading,  in  1710,  about  the  Norse  colonists  of  the  west 
— and  apparently  knowing  nothing  of  Thiodhilda — 
was  led  to  think  that  some  of  their  descendants  might 
still  be  living  in  heathenism.  Writing  to  the  Bishop 
of  Trondhjem,  he  proposed  to  go  out  to  these  as  a 
missionary.  The  good  father  rather  astonished  him  by 
the  reply  that  "Greenland  was  undoubtedly  part  of 
America,  and  could  not  be  very  far  from  Cuba  and 
Hispaniola,  where  there  was  found  such  abundance  of 
gold,"  and,  as  those  who  went  to  Greenland  might 
ibring  home  "incredible  riches,"  he  approved  of  the 
I  suggestion. 

259 


260  GREENLAND 

Unfortunately,  however,  Egede  had  written  his  letter 
without  the  knowledge  of  his  wife,  who  by  no  means 
thought  with  the  Bishop  until  seven  years  afterwards, 
when  she  changed  her  mind.  Trying  in  vain  locally, 
Egede  applied  for  support  to  Frederick  IV  of  Denmark, 
who  finding  him  an  earnest,  honest,  interesting  man, 
gave  him  his  patronage,  the  result  being  that  a  com- 
pany was  formed  at  Bergen  for  the  development  of 
trade  and  the  propagation  of  the  gospel ;  and,  on  the 
3rd  of  May,  1721,  the  Hope  set  sail  from  there  for 
Greenland  with  forty-six  intending  colonists,  including 
the  missionary  and  his  wife  and  family. 

His  landing-place  was  on  an  island  at  the  mouth 
of  Godthaab  Fiord,  or  Baal's  River.  He  found  the 
Greenlanders  very  different  from  what  he  had  sup- 
posed ;  and  also  that  the  Dutch  were  carrying  on  a 
profitable  trade  with  them  and  keeping  it  quiet.  To 
begin  with  they  were  nothing  like  Vikings  in  appear- 
ance ;  and  their  language,  instead  of  being  a  Scandi- 
navian dialect,  was  of  the  same  character  as  that  of 
the  Eskimos  of  Labrador — and  not  at  all  easy  to  learn. 
Learn  it,  however,  he  and  his  family  did ;  and  among 
the  Greenlanders  they  remained  and  laboured  with 
truly  admirable  energy  and  devotion,  battling  hard  for 
life  amid  much  disaster  until,  with  the  help  of  his 
son  Paul,  who  succeeded  him  as  superintendent  of  the 
mission  with  the  title  of  bishop,  the  settlement  became 
permanent,  and  other  settlements  arose  from  it  up  the 
western  coast  as  they  are  found  to-day. 

Though  there  were  no  Norsemen,  there  were  many 
traces  of  them,  the  most  interesting  being  the  house  of 
Eric  the  Red,  near  Igaliko.  Here,  close  to  Erik's 


From  a  photo  by  Dr.  H.  Rink 


GREENLANDERS 


To  face  page  260 


THE   HOUSE   OF  ERIC  THE   RED  261 

Fiord  and  overlooking  Einar's  Fiord,  on  one  of  the 
prettiest  sites  in  Greenland,  was  Brattelid — "  the  steep 
side  of  a  rock  " — one  side  of  it  a  natural  cliff,  the  walls 
of  the  other  sides,  more  than  four  feet  thick,  built  of 
blocks  of  red  sandstone  from  four  to  six  feet  in  length 
as  well  as  in  breadth  and  thickness,  reminding  the 
visitor  of  those  of  Stonehenge,  and  evoking  similar 
wonderment  as  to  how  they  were  got  into  place.  And 
in  his  first  colony,  now  called  Igdluernerit,  Egede 
seems  to  have  followed  the  Norsemen — at  an  interval — 
in  their  architecture,  to  judge  by  the  large  stones  in 
the  walls  of  his  house,  which,  like  Eric's,  is  now  in 
ruins. 

Twelve  years  after  Egede,  came  the  Moravians  to 
take  up  their  quarters  at  Ny  Herrnhut,  also  at  the 
mouth  of  Godthaab  (that  is,  Good  Hope)  Fiord.  It 
was  here  that  Nansen  and  Sverdrup  landed  in  October, 
1888,  having  rowed  up  from  Ameralik  Fiord  in  their 
"  half  a  boat,"  as  the  Eskimos  called  it. 

"  Are  you  Englishmen  ? "  they  were  asked. 

"No,"  said  Nansen,  in  good  Norse,  "we  are  Nor- 
wegians." 

"  May  I  ask  your  name  ? " 

"  My  name  is  Nansen  and  we  have  just  come  from 
the  interior." 

"  Oh,  allow  me  to  congratulate  you  on  taking  your 
doctor's  degree ! " 

From  which  it  is  clear  that  Godthaab  is  not  so  much 
out  of  the  world  as  one  would  suppose. 

Nansen  with  his  three  Norsemen  and  two  Lapps  had 
reached  the  east  coast  in  the  Jason,  and  on  the  17th  of 
July  had  left  the  ship  in  their  boats  to  make  their  way 


262  GREENLAND 

to  the  shore ;  but  they  had  been  caught  in  the  floes, 
and  on  them  and  among  them  they  had  drifted  for 
twelve  days — an  experience  they  had  not  bargained  for. 
Getting  ashore  at  last  near  Cape  Tordenskiold,  they 
worked  their  way  back  northwards  along  the  coast, 
spending  a  short  time  at  an  Eskimo  encampment  at 
Cape  Bille,  until  on  the  15th  of  August  they  hauled 
their  two  boats  up  near  Umivik  and  started  to  cross 
Greenland  over  the  inland  ice. 

The  country  is  now  in  its  glacial  period,  and  for  days 
they  toiled  across  its  glacial  desert;  each  day  alike  in  its 
wearisome  monotony.  "Flatness  and  whiteness  were 
the  two  features  of  this  ocean  of  snow,"  says  Nansen; 
"  in  the  day  we  could  see  three  things  only,  the  sun, 
the  snowfield  and  ourselves.  We  looked  like  a  diminu- 
tive black  line  feebly  traced  upon  an  infinite  expanse  of 
white.  There  was  no  break  or  change  in  our  horizon, 
no  object  to  rest  the  eye  upon,  and  no  point  by  which  to 
direct  the  course.  We  had  to  steer  by  a  diligent  use  of 
the  compass,  and  keep  our  line  as  well  as  possible  by 
careful  watching  of  the  sun  and  repeated  glances  back 
at  the  four  men  following  and  the  long  track  which  the 
caravan  left  in  the  snow.  We  passed  from  one  horizon 
to  another,  but  our  advance  brought  us  no  change." 

By  the  2nd  of  September  they  had  all  taken  to  their 
skis  on  which  they  made  great  progress  alone,  but  when 
it  came  to  hauling  the  sledges  there  was  a  difference. 
Sometimes  the  snow  proved  to  be  very  heavy  going, 
particularly  when  it  was  wind-packed,  and  then  it  was 
no  better  than  sand.  One  entry  in  Nansen's  journal 
will  suffice :  "  It  began  to  snow  in  the  middle  of  the 
day,  and  our  work  was  heavier  than  ever.  It  was  worse 


ON   LEVEL  GROUND 


To  face  page  262 


I 


NANSEN   CROSSES   GREENLAND  263 

even  than  yesterday,  and  to  say  it  was  like  hauling  in 
blue  clay  will  scarcely  give  an  idea  of  it.  At  every 
step  we  had  to  use  all  our  force  to  get  the  heavy 
sledges  along,  and  in  the  evening  Sverdrup  and  I,  who 
had  to  go  first  and  plough  a  way  for  ourselves,  were 
pretty  well  done  up." 

When  at  last  the  wind  became  favourable  they 
hoisted  sail,  and  off  they  went  over  the  waves  and  drifts 
of  snow  at  a  speed  that  almost  took  their  breath  away ; 
and  when  they  reached  the  western  slopes  they  slid 
down  them  using  the  sledges  as  toboggans.  At  first 
they  had  intended  making  for  Christianshaab,  but  the 
route  had  to  be  changed  for  that  to  Godthaab,  and 
the  sea  was  reached  some  distance  to  the  south.  Here 
they  stitched  the  floor-sheet  of  their  tent  over  a  frame- 
work of  withies,  and  with  oars  made  of  canvas  stretched 
across  forked  willows  and  tied  to  bamboo  shafts, 
Nansen  and  Sverdrup  boldly  trusted  themselves  to  the 
waves  and  with  much  hard  labour  pulled  into  Ny 
Herrnhut  on  the  3rd  of  October.  Such  was  the  first 
crossing  of  Greenland,  a  really  remarkable  instance  of 
daring  endeavour. 

Further  north,  Nordenskiold,  in  1883,  had  attempted 
to  cross  over  the  ice-cap  from  near  Disco  on  the  west 
coast,  but,  hindered  and  finally  stopped  by  crevasses 
and  other  obstacles,  could  do  no  more  than  send 
his  Lapps  to  try  their  best  on  their  skis,  and 
they  returned  after  their  journey  eastwards  of  a 
hundred  and  forty  miles  reporting  similar  monotonous 
conditions  all  along  their  track.  Thirteen  years 
before,  he  had,  also  from  Auleitsivik  Fiord,  started  out 
with  Berggren ;  and  deserted  by  their  followers,  they 


264  GREENLAND 

had  gone  on  by  themselves  for  some  thirty  miles  east 
of  the  northern  arm  of  the  fiord.  It  was  on  this  occa- 
sion that  Berggren  discovered  Ancylonema,  that  small 
polycellular  alga  forming  the  dark  masses  that  absorb  a 
far  greater  amount  of  heat  than  the  white  ice  and  thus 
cause  the  deep  holes  that  aid  in  the  process  of  melting. 

"  The  same  plant,"  says  Nordenskiold,  "  has  no  doubt 
played  the  same  part  in  our  country ;  and  we  have  to 
thank  it,  perhaps,  that  the  deserts  of  ice  which 
formerly  covered  the  whole  of  Northern  Europe  and 
America  have  now  given  place  to  shady  woods  and 
undulating  cornfields." 

Nordenskiold  looked  upon  Greenland  and  its  icefield 
as  a  broad-lipped,  shallow  vessel  with  chinks  in  the  lip, 
the  glacier  being  viscous  matter  within  it.  As  more  is 
poured  in,  the  matter  runs  over  the  edges,  taking  the 
lines  of  the  chinks,  that  is,  of  the  fiords  and  valleys,  as 
that  of  its  outflow.  In  other  words,  the  ice  floats  out 
by  force  of  the  superincumbent  weight  of  snow  just  as 
does  the  grain  on  the  floor  of  a  barn  when  another 
sackful  is  shot  on  to  the  top  of  the  heap  already  there. 
When  the  glacier  reaches  the  sea  it  makes  its  way  along 
the  bottom  under  water  for  a  considerable  distance,  in 
some  cases,  as  near  Avigait,  for  more  than  a  mile.  This 
is  where  the  water  is  too  shallow  for  it  to  affect  the 
mass,  which  forms  a  breakwater ;  though  as  a  rule  the 
shore  deepens  more  suddenly  and  the  projection  is  less. 
It  was  long  supposed  that  the  berg  broke  from  the 
glacier  by  force  of  gravity,  but  this  is  not  generally  so. 
The  berg  is  forced  off  from  the  parent  glacier  by  the 
buoyant  action  of  the  sea  from  beneath  ;  the  ice  groans 
and  creaks ;  then  there  is  a  crashing,  then  a  roar  like 


DIATOMS   AND  WHALES  265 

the  discharge  of  artillery ;  and  with  a  great  regurgitation 
of  the  waves  the  iceberg  is  launched  into  life.  These 
huge  floating  islands  of  ice  are  the  most  conspicuous 
exports  of  Greenland  ;  and  their  true  magnitude  is  not 
realised  until  it  is  remembered  that  only  about  an 
eighth  of  their  bulk  appears  above  the  water.  Bergs  as 
large  as  liners  we  frequently  hear  of — one  such  is  shown 
in  our  illustration — but  sometimes  they  are  of  much 
greater  freeboard,  though  the  very  large  ones  reported 
as  extending  along  the  horizon  are  invariably  groups  of 
several  crowded  together. 

Ancylonema  has  evidently  plenty  to  do.  Another 
instance  of  the  important  part  played  by  the  insignificant 
in  these  regions  is  suggested  by  the  colour  of  the  sea. 
This  varies  from  ultramarine  blue  to  olive-green,  from 
the  purest  transparency  to  striking  opacity;  and  the 
changes  are  not  transitory  but  permanent.  These 
patches  of  dark  water  abound  with  diatoms,  while  the 
bluer  the  water  the  fewer  are  the  diatoms ;  and  where 
they  are  most  numerous,  there  the  animals  that  feed  on 
them  assemble  in  their  greatest  numbers.  And  these 
animals  are  jellyfish,  entomostracans,  and,  to  a  greater 
extent,  pteropods,  their  chief  representative  being  Clio 
borealis.  In  short,  the  animals  that  feed  on  the  diatoms 
are  food  of  the  Greenland  whale,  and  where  the  waters 
are  dark  the  whale-fishers  thrive.  "I  know  nothing 
stranger  than  the  curious  tale  I  have  unfolded,"  says 
Dr.  Robert  Brown,  who  worked  out  this  remarkable 
chain,  "  the  diatom  staining  the  broad  frozen  sea,  again 
supporting  myriads  of  living  beings  which  crowd  there 
to  feed  on  it,  and  these  again  supporting  the  huge 
whale.  Thus  it  is  no  stretch  of  the  imagination  to  say 


266  GREENLAND 

that  the  greatest  animal  depends  for  its  existence  on  a 
being  so  minute  that  it  takes  thousands  to  be  massed 
together  before  they  are  visible  to  the  naked  eye." 

Cold  as  Greenland  is,  there  was  a  time  when  matters 
were  different.  In  token  of  this  we  have  the  Miocene 
fossils  collected  by  Edward  Whymper  during  his 
expedition  from  near  Jakobshavn  in  1867,  which  were 
described  and  illustrated  by  Oswald  Heer  in  the  Philo- 
sophical Transactions  for  1869.  A  look  at  these  is  a 
welcome  relief  after  such  a  surfeit  of  ice.  Here,  as 
well  preserved  as  in  the  leaf  beds  of  Alum  Bay,  are 
the  leaves  and  fruits  of  an  unmistakable  temperate  flora. 
Magnolias,  maples,  poplars,  limes,  walnuts,  water-lilies; 
myrica,  smilax,  aralia ;  sedges  and  grasses,  conifers  and 
ferns :  these  at  the  least  were  all  growing  in  Greenland 
in  its  Miocene  age.  And  even  a  thousand  years  ago 
the  climate  must  have  been  milder  than  now,  to  judge 
by  the  farming  reports  of  the  colonists  who  seem  to 
have  been  quite  at  home  along  the  coast,  which,  with 
its  innumerable  islands  and  fiords,  is  as  intricate  as  that 
of  Norway. 

Searching  for  the  ancient  eastern  settlement  of  the 
Norsemen,  W.  A.  Graah,  in  1829,  wintered  at 
Julianehaab,  which  in  all  likelihood  is  the  site,  although 
he  knew  it  not.  Possessed  with  the  idea  that  it  must 
be  on  the  south-eastern  coast,  he  devoted  his  attention 
to  that  region  only,  finding  Eskimos  who  had  never 
seen  a  white  man  and  starting  a  trading  intercourse 
which  led  to  most  of  them  migrating  to  the  less  incle- 
ment west.  His  work  linked  up  with  that  of  Scoresby, 
who  in  1822  charted  the  main  features  of  the  sea-front 
from  69°  to  75°.  Ryder,  seventy  years  afterwards,  filled 


KOLDEWEY'S  EXPEDITION  267 

in  the  details  of  much  of  Scoresby's  work,  and  found 
Eskimos  further  north,  as  Clavering  had  done  in  1828, 
when  in  the  Griper  during  Sabine's  observations  at 
Pendulum  Island. 

It  was  to  Pendulum  Island,  in  74°  32',  that  Karl 
Koldewey,  after  his  preliminary  run  to  81°  5'  in  1868, 
took  the  Germania  to  winter  during  the  German  ex- 
pedition of  1869.  The  two  vessels,  the  Germania,  a 
small  two-masted  screw  steamer  of  one  hundred  and 
forty-three  tons,  built  specially  for  Arctic  service, 
and  the  Hansa,  only  half  her  size,  which  had  been 
strengthened  for  the  voyage,  reached  Jan  Mayen  on 
the  9th  of  July,  and,  hidden  from  each  other  by  fog, 
sailed  northwards  for  five  days.  On  the  fifth  evening 
the  wind  rose,  the  fog  cleared,  and  a  hundred  yards  in 
front  of  them  lay  the  ice  like  a  rugged  line  of  cliffs. 

For  a  few  days  they  sailed  along  it  endeavouring  to 
find  an  opening  to  the  north.  Then,  on  the  20th,  the 
Germania  ran  up  a  signal  to  approach  and  communi- 
cate, which  was  misunderstood,  and,  instead  of  repeat- 
ing it  and  making  sure,  the  Hansa  put  up  her  helm, 
fell  off,  crowded  on  all  sail,  and  disappeared  in  the  fog. 
Koldewey,  persisting  in  his  efforts  to  get  through  the 
pack,  found  an  opening  on  the  1st  of  August.  Nine 
days  afterwards  he  was  again  blocked,  and  finally,  on 
the  27th,  he  reached  Pendulum  Island,  where  he  made 
the  Germania  snug  for  the  winter,  which  proved  to  be 
remarkably  mild. 

The  first  sledge  party  travelling  up  one  of  the  fiords 
met  with  abundant  vegetation  and  herds  of  reindeer 
and  musk  oxen,  and  were  visited  by  bears  who  had  not 
learnt  to  be  wary  of  man ;  and  when  the  bears  came 


268  GREENLAND 

back  with  the  sun  in  February  they  were  as  trouble- 
some as  those  of  Ice  Haven  to  the  Dutchmen.  Several 
sledge  parties  went  out  in  the  spring,  and,  notwith- 
standing inadequate  equipment,  did  excellent  work. 
In  April,  1870,  Koldewey  reached  77°  1',  almost  up  to 
Lambert  Land,  otherwise  the  Land  of  Edam.  Here, 
looking  out  over  the  ice-belt,  they  agreed  that  it  was 
"a  bulwark  built  for  eternity,"  and  hoisting  sails  on 
their  sledges  they  ran  back  to  the  ship.  But  in  1905 
the  Duke  of  Orleans  arrived  on  the  coast  to  reach 
78°  16;  and  discover  that  their  Cape  Bismarck  was  on 
an  island  and  their  Dove  Bay  a  strait. 

In  the  neighbourhood  of  their  winter  quarters  the 
glaciers   and  mountains   were   well   explored,  and   an 
attempt  was  made  to  measure  an  arc  of  the  meridian, 
which  proved  to  be  rather  rough  work  among  such 
surroundings.     The  snowstorms  were  particularly  piti- 
less and  heavy,  and  the  travelling  decidedly  bad.     The 
thaw  began  about  the  middle  of  May,  and  there  was 
more  sledging  through  pools  than  usual,  so  that  they 
did  not  want  variety  in  their  occupations.     On   the 
14th  of  July  boating  became  practicable,  and  a  voyage 
was  made  to  the  Eskimo  village  found  by  Clavering 
in  1823,  on  the  island  named  after  him,  but  the  village 
proved  to  be  deserted  and  the  huts  in  ruins — an  un- 
welcome discovery,  for,  as  M'Clintock  says  in  reference 
to  it:  "It  is  not  less  strange  than  sad  to  find  that  a 
peaceable  and  once  numerous  tribe,  inhabiting  a  coast- 
line of  at  least  seven  degrees  of  latitude,  has  died  out, 
or  has  almost  died  out,  whilst  at  the  same  time  we  find, 
by  the  diminution  of  the  glaciers  and  increase  of  animal 
life,  that  the  terrible  severity  of  the  climate  has  under- 


FRANZ  JOSEF  FIORD  269 

gone  considerable  modification.  We  feel  this  sadden- 
ing interest  with  greater  force  when  we  reflect  that  the 
distance  of  Clavering's  village  from  the  coast  of  Scot- 
land is  under  one  thousand  miles.  They  were  our 
nearest  neighbours  of  the  New  World." 

A  little  north  of  the  seventy -third  parallel  Koldewey 
discovered  on  his  way  home  the  magnificent  Franz  Josef 
Fiord.  Here  the  grandest  scenery  in  Greenland  is  to 
be  found  along  its  deep  branches  winding  among  the 
mountains,  one  of  which,  Mount  Petermann,  is  over 
eleven  thousand  feet  high.  As  the  Germania  entered 
this  remarkable  inlet,  which  extends  inland  for  some  five 
degrees  of  longitude,  a  fleet  of  icebergs  were  sailing  out 
of  it  with  the  current ;  the  farther  she  advanced  the 
warmer  seemed  the  temperature  of  the  air  and  surface 
water,  and  the  wilder  and  more  impressive  became  the 
grouping  of  the  mighty  cliffs  and  peaks  with  their  lofty 
waterfalls  and  raging  torrents  and  deep  glacier-filled 
ravines.  It  was  the  great  geographical  discovery  of  the 
expedition. 

Meanwhile  Hegemann,  trying  to  pass  to  the  north 
more  to  the  westward,  got  the  Hansa  beset  on  the  9th 
of  September  some  twenty-four  miles  from  Foster  Bay. 
As  the  ice-pressure  threatened  to  become  too  great  for 
the  vessel  to  resist,  an  elaborate  house  was  planned  and 
built  on  the  floe.  Briquettes  were  used  for  the  walls, 
the  joints  were  filled  up  with  dry  snow  on  which  water 
was  poured,  and  in  ten  minutes  it  hardened  into  a  com- 
pact mass.  The  house  was  twenty  feet  long,  fourteen 
feet  wide,  and  four  feet  eight  inches  high  at  the  sides, 
with  a  rising  roof  consisting  of  sails  and  mats  covered 
with  deep  snow.  Into  this  house,  which  took  a  week 


270  GREENLAND 

to  build,  provisions  for  two  months  were  carried, 
besides  wood  and  fuel.  The  boats  were  put  out,  a 
flagstaff  was  set  up,  and  quite  a  little  settlement  was 
started  on  the  ice ;  and  no  sooner  was  it  completed  than 
a  violent  snowstorm,  lasting  for  five  days,  buried  both 
the  ship  and  the  house.  The  ice  increased  around,  and, 
the  pressure  of  the  accumulation  lifting  the  Hansa 
seventeen  feet  above  her  original  level,  everything  of 
value  was  removed  from  her  on  to  the  ice  and  into  the 
house.  On  the  22nd  of  October  she  sank,  having 
drifted  below  the  seventy-first  parallel ;  and  all  through 
the  winter  the  floe,  which  was  about  two  miles  across, 
leisurely  made  its  way  to  the  south. 

Off  Knighton  Bay  Christmas  was  kept  with  all 
possible  honour.  The  briquette  house  was  decorated 
with  coloured-paper  festoons,  and,  by  the  light  of  the 
sole  remaining  wax  candle,  the  genial  Germans  made 
themselves  merry  around  a  stubby  Christmas  tree 
devised  out  of  an  old  birch  broom.  Three  weeks  after- 
wards the  floe  cracked  beneath  the  dwelling.  There 
was  barely  time  to  take  refuge,  but  all  hands  were 
saved  in  the  boats.  For  two  days  they  remained  in  them, 
poorly  sheltered  from  the  storm  and  unable  to  clear  out 
the  snow.  Then  a  smaller  house  was  built  of  the  ruins 
of  the  old  one,  but  it  was  only  large  enough  for  half 
the  party ;  and  as  the  spring  advanced  the  floe  de- 
creased, breaking  away  at  the  edges  as  did  that  on 
which  the  Polaris  people  drifted  to  Labrador. 

At  the  end  of  March  it  entered  Nukarbik  Bay  and 
there  it  stayed  four  weeks,  caught  in  an  eddy,  slowly 
moving  round  and  round  just  far  enough  from  the 
shore  to  render  an  attempt  at  escape  impossible  ;  twice 


HEGEM ANN'S   DRIFT  271 

a  day  they  went  in  with  the  tide  and  out  with  the  tide,  the 
ice  too  bad  for  the  boats  and  never  promising  enough 
for  a  dash  to  the  land.  Having  become  thoroughly 
acquainted  with  this  portion  of  the  coast  with  its  bold 
range  of  hills,  its  deep  bays,  its  inlets,  headlands,  and 
islands,  a  storm  came  on  which  cleared  them  out  of  the 
eddy  and  drove  them  further  south.  Three  weeks  after 
that  the  floe  had  become  so  diminished  by  the  lashing 
of  the  surge  that  it  was  hardly  a  hundred  yards  across, 
and  large  fragments  were  slipping  off  every  hour. 

They  had  been  on  it  for  two  hundred  days  and 
drifted  eleven  hundred  miles  when,  on  the  7th  of  May, 
water-lanes  opening  shore  wards,  they  took  to  the  boats 
and  ventured  among  the  masses  of  ice,  making  for  the 
south.  At  first  they  had  their  difficulties  in  being 
compelled  to  haul  up  on  the  floes  to  pass  the  night  or 
wait  for  a  favourable  wind,  which  meant  severe  work  in 
unloading  and  reloading.  Once  during  their  painful 
progress  of  more  than  a  month  they  were  kept  on  a 
floe  for  six  days  by  gales  and  snow-showers.  Finally, 
after  a  long  desperate  effort,  they  reached  Illuilek 
Island,  and  thence  proceeded  close  inshore  among  rocks 
and  ice  to  Frederiksdal,  a  couple  of  hours'  walk  from 
the  southernmost  point  of  the  Greenland  mainland, 
Cape  Farewell  being  part  of  an  island  twenty-eight 
miles  further  to  the  south-east.  On  the  21st  of  June, 
eight  days  afterwards,  they  were  at  Julianehaab,  whence 
they  sailed  to  be  landed  at  Copenhagen  on  the  1st  of 
September,  just  ten  days  before  the  Germania  steamed 
into  Bremen.  Thus  the  expedition,  by  its  two  divisions, 
ice-borne  and  ship-borne,  had  skirted  nearly  all  that 
was  then  known  of  the  east  coast  from  end  to  end. 


272  GREENLAND 

On  the  north  coast,  Beaumont's  discoveries  were 
extended  by  Lieutenant  James  B.  Lockwood  for  ninety- 
five  miles,  the  trend  of  the  shore  taking  him  up  to 
83°  24',  three  minutes  and  thirty-four  seconds  nearer 
the  North  Pole  than  Markham  reached  out  on  the  sea. 
This  was  on  the  13th  of  May,  1882,  during  the  ill-fated 
A.  W.  Greely  expedition.  Like  most  American  ex- 
peditions up  to  then  this  began  well  and  ended  badly, 
worse,  in  fact,  than  any;  and  unlike  them,  and  all  others, 
it  consisted  entirely  of  soldiers — as  if  a  detachment  of 
Royal  Engineers  had  been  sent  north  on  ordnance 
survey  work.  It  was,  however,  more  miscellaneous, 
for  among  its  twenty-three  members  were  representa- 
tives of  three  cavalry  regiments,  six  infantry  regiments, 
and  an  artilleryman. 

This  was  to  be  the  garrison  of  the  International 
Circumpolar  Station  at  Lady  Franklin  Bay.  The  idea 
of  a  ring  of  stations  round  the  Pole  for  the  study  of 
the  natural  phenomena  for  which  the  Arctic  regions 
afford  so  wide  and  important  a  field  was  not  new,  but 
it  was  first  reduced  to  definiteness  and  its  adoption 
secured  by  Karl  Weyprecht  of  the  Austro- Hungarian 
expedition  of  1872.  At  a  meeting  of  German  scientific 
men  at  Gratz,  in  September,  1875,  he  procured  assent 
to  his  general  principle  that  the  best  results  in  Arctic 
inquiry  were  to  be  obtained  by  subordinating  geo- 
graphical discovery  to  physical  investigation.  It  had 
long  been  evident  that  the  most  valuable  results  had 
been  obtained  by  the  ships  and  fixed  observatories,  and 
that  the  toilsome  work  of  the  sledges  in  their  successive 
approaches  by  a  few  more  miles  towards  a  mathematical 
point,  though  most  interesting  to  read  about,  had  really 


GREENLAND 


100  0  100  200  300  400  BOO 


To  face  page  272 


THE   INTERNATIONAL   STATIONS  273 

been  of  very  little  practical  use  owing  to  the  necessarily 
light  equipment.  Instead,  therefore,  of  a  number  of 
isolated  attempts  at  irregular  intervals,  Weyprecht 
suggested  that  the  better  way  would  be  to  attack  the 
subject  systematically  by  a  group  of  expeditions  at 
permanent  stations  working  together  long  enough  at 
the  same  time  for  their  observations  to  be  dealt  with  as 
part  of  a  general  scheme ;  and  the  suggestion  was 
approved  although  he  did  not  live  long  enough  to  see 
the  stations  occupied. 

Three  International  Polar  Conferences  were  held,  in 
1879  and  the  two  following  years,  at  Hamburg,  Berne, 
and  St.  Petersburg,  at  the  last  of  which  it  was  arranged 
that  the  stations  should  be  fourteen  in  number,  two  in 
the  south  and  twelve  in  the  north,  these  twelve  being 
— (1)  The  Austrian  at  Jan  May  en ;  (2)  the  Danish  at 
Godthaab;  (3)  the  Finnish  at  Sodankyla  in  Uleaborg; 

(4)  the   German   at   Kingua   in  Cumberland   Sound ; 

(5)  the  British  at  Fort  Rae  on  the  northern  arm  of  the 
Great  Slave  Lake ;  (6)  the  Dutch  at  Dickson  Harbour 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Yenesei ;  (7)  the  Norwegian  at 
Bosekop  at  the  head  of  Alten  Fiord  ;  (8)  the  Russian  at 
Little  Karmakul  Bay  in  Novaya  Zemlya  ;  (9)  the  second 
Russian  on  Sagastyr  Island  in  the  Lena  Delta  ;  (10)  the 
Swedish    at    Mossel    Bay    in    Spitsbergen;    (11)  the 
American  at  Point  Barrow  under  Lieutenant  P.  H. 
Ray,  who  met  with  marked  success  and  brought  his 
men  all  home  in  safety ;  and  (12)  the  second  American 
at  Lady  Franklin  Bay,  the  winter  quarters  of  H.M.S. 
Discovery,  which  Greely  renamed  Fort  Conger. 

In  direct  opposition  to  the  guiding  idea  of  the 
scheme,  Greely's  work  was  complicated  by  having 


274  GREENLAND 

tacked  on  to  it  Howgate's  proposal  of  another  dash  for 
the  Pole,  his  instructions  requiring  him  to  send  out 
"  sledging  parties  in  the  interests  of  exploration  and 
discovery."  Further,  his  expedition  was  fitted  out  in 
a  way  that  almost  invited  disaster.  Let  one  instance 
suffice.  "  In  speaking  of  this  instrument,"  he  explains, 
"it  is  necessary  to  say  that  a  dip-circle  was  especially 
made  for  the  Lady  Franklin  Bay  Expedition,  but  it 
was  by  error  shipped  to  the  United  States  Coast  Sur- 
vey. On  calling  for  it,  when  the  duplicate  instrument 
ordered  could  not  be  had  in  time,  the  late  Mr.  Carlisle 
Patterson,  then  Superintendent,  promptly  promised  that 
it  should  be  sent  on  to  me  at  New  York.  On  the  day 
of  my  sailing,  a  dip-circle,  carefully  boxed,  was  received  ; 
but  on  opening  it  at  St.  John,  an  old,  rusty,  unreliable 
instrument  was  found  in  the  place  of  the  new  circle. 
This  resulted  in  unsatisfactory  and  incomplete  observa- 
tions at  Conger,  for  the  old  circle  having  upright 
standards  instead  of  transverse  ones,  as  in  the  new,  but 
one  end  of  the  needle  could  be  read.  It  must  always 
be  a  matter  of  regret  that  this  unwarrantable  and  un- 
authorised substitution  by  some  person  was  made,  which 
materially  impaired,  if  not  effectually  destroyed,  the 
value  of  our  two-years'  dip-observations."  This  sort  of 
thing  reduced  International  Polar  Research  to  a  farce, 
and  the  same  spirit  appeared  in  other  departments, 
more  seriously  than  all  in  the  relief  proceedings,  which 
were  conducted  in  a  way  that  could  only  lead  to  starva- 
tion. 

In  August,  1881,  the  Proteus,  with  the  expedition 
on  board,  made  her  way  up  Smith  Sound  and  Kennedy 
Channel  without  serious  hindrance  until  she  entered 


LOCKWOOD'S  JOURNEY  275 

the  south-eastern  part  of  Lady  Franklin  Bay,  where 
the  close,  heavy  pack  brought  her  to  a  stop  within 
eight  miles  of  her  destination.  She  had  come  seven 
hundred  miles  from  Upernivik  in  less  than  a  week,  and, 
faced  by  ice  twenty  to  fifty  feet  thick,  she  had  to  wait 
another  seven  days  before  she  got  into  Discovery 
Harbour.  Here  the  party  landed  and  a  house  was 
built,  and  dissension  arose  which  ended  in  one  of  the 
company  returning  in  the  ship  and  another  endeavouring 
to  do  so  and  being  too  late,  so  that  he  had  to  remain  as 
a  sort  of  tolerated  volunteer.  Two  others  were  sent 
away  as  being  physically  unfit ;  but,  making  up  for 
these,  were  two  Eskimos  engaged  at  Upernivik. 

Preliminary  sledging  began  at  once,  and  in  the  spring 
the  two  great  efforts  were  made.  The  doctor's,  towards 
the  Pole,  left  on  the  19th  of  March  and  got  adrift  on 
a  floe  from  which  the  party  escaped  with  the  loss  of 
their  tent,  provisions,  and  some  of  their  instruments. 
According  to  Greely's  report :  "  The  farthest  latitude 
attained  by  this  party  is  given  by  Dr.  Pavy  as  82°  56', 
it  being  estimated,  as  no  observations  for  time,  magnetic 
declination,  or  latitude  were  made  at  any  period  during 
his  absence." 

On  the  3rd  of  April,  Lockwood  with  twelve  men 
left  for  the  coast  of  Greenland.  Up  to  Newman  Bay 
four  men  had  been  sent  back  as  unfit  for  field-work. 
On  the  16th,  when  the  party  started  from  here  for  the 
north-east,  Lockwood  and  Christiansen,  the  Eskimo, 
were  in  advance  hauling  about  eight  hundred  pounds 
with  a  team  of  eight  dogs,  a  three-men  sledge  follow- 
ing, and  then  two  two-men  sledges ;  at  Cape  Bryant 
the  men-sledges  were  sent  back,  and  Lockwood, 


276  GREENLAND 

Brainard,  and  the  Eskimo  went  on  with  the  dog-sledge. 

Cape  Britannia  was  reached  on  the  5th  of  May,  and 

on  the  13th  they  camped  at  Lockwood  Island,  and 

there,  for  the  first  time,  Americans  reached  a  farthest 

north. 

"  I  decided  to  make  this  cape  my  farthest,"  reported 
Lockwood,  "and  to  devote  the  little  time  we  could 
stay  to  determining  accurately  my  position,  if  the 
weather  would  allow,  which  seemed  doubtful.  We 
built  a  large,  conspicuous  cairn,  about  six  feet  high 
and  the  same  width  at  the  base,  on  the  lower  of  two 
benches.  After  repitching  the  tent  Sergeant  Brainard 
and  I  returned  to  the  cairn,  and  collected  in  that 
vicinity  specimens  of  the  rocks  and  vegetation  of  the 
country,  the  sergeant  making  almost  all  the  collection. 
We  ascended  without  difficulty  to  a  small  fringe  of 
rocks,  which  seemed  from  below  to  form  the  top.  The 
ascent,  at  first  very  gradual,  became  steeper  as  we  went 
up,  but  we  had  no  difficulty,  as  for  some  distance  below 
the  summit  the  surface  is  covered  with  small  stones, 
as  uniform  in  size,  position,  etc.,  as  those  of  a  macadam- 
ised road.  Reached  the  top  at  3.45  p.m.  and  unfurled 
the  American  flag  (Mrs.  Greely's)  to  the  breeze  in 
latitude  83°  24'  N.  (according  to  last  observation).  The 
summit  is  a  small  plateau,  narrow,  but  extending  back 
to  the  south  to  broken,  snow-covered  heights.  It  com- 
manded a  very  extended  view  in  every  direction.  The 
barometer,  being  out  of  order,  was  not  brought  along, 
so  I  did  not  get  the  altitude.  The  horizon  on  the  land 
side  was  concealed  by  numberless  snow-covered  moun- 
tains, one  profile  overlapping  another,  and  all  so  merged 
together,  on  account  of  their  universal  covering  of 


GREELY'S  WAGON  277 

snow,  that  it  was  impossible  to  detect  the  topography 
of  the  region.  To  the  north  lay  an  unbroken  expanse 
of  ice,  interrupted  only  by  the  horizon." 

On  Midsummer  Day  Greely  started  with  a  four- 
wheel  wagon  to  explore  Grinnell  Land.  The  wagon, 
in  the  men's  vernacular,  was  a  man-killer,  and  was 
abandoned  after  they  had  dragged  it  a  hundred  miles. 
On  this  journey  much  exploring  work  was  done  in  the 
unknown  country,  the  most  interesting  find  being  that 
of  the  Eskimo  house  at  Lake  Hazen.  In  this,  accord- 
ing to  Greely 's  description,  there  were  two  fireplaces, 
one  in  the  east  and  the  other  in  the  south,  both  of 
which  had  been  built  outward  so  as  to  take  up  no  part 
of  the  space  of  the  room,  which  was  over  seventeen 
feet  long  and  nine  feet  wide.  The  sides  of  the  entire 
dwelling  were  low  walls  of  sodded  earth,  lined  inside 
with  flat  thin  slates,  the  tops  of  which  were  about  two 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  interior  floor,  and  the  bench 
was  covered  with  flat  slabs  of  slate.  Near  by  was  a  smaller 
house  of  the  same  character,  and  around  were  a  large 
number  of  relics,  including  walrus-ivory  toggles  for 
dog -traces,  sledge-bars  and  runners,  an  arrow  head, 
skinning  knife,  and  articles  of  worked  bone.  Next 
year  further  explorations  of  the  back  country  were 
undertaken,  so  that  some  six  thousand  miles  of  the 
interior  were  viewed,  disclosing  many  fertile  valleys 
with  their  herds  of  musk  ox. 

Meanwhile  the  Neptune,  with  supplies  for  Fort 
Conger,  had  in  August,  1882,  been  vainly  endeavouring 
to  get  north,  and,  a  few  miles  from  Cape  Hawks,  had 
turned  back  with  the  pack  piling  the  ice  as  high  as  her 
rail.  Six  attempts  she  made  before  she  gave  up  and 


278  GREENLAND 

retreated,  after  making  several  deposits  of  stores  at 
Cape  Sabine  and  elsewhere.  In  July,  1883,  the  Proteus, 
making  a  similar  attempt  to  reach  Greely,  was  crushed 
in  the  ice  off  Cape  Albert,  her  side  opening  with  a 
crash  while  the  men  were  working  in  the  hold,  the  ice 
forcing  its  way  into  the  coal-bunkers  and  then  pouring 
in  so  that  as  soon  as  the  pressure  slackened  she  went 
down,  escape  to  the  south  being  effected  in  the  boats. 

Next  year,  matters  having  become  serious,  a  naval 
expedition  consisting  of  the  Thetis,  the  Bear,  and 
Nares's  old  ship  the  Alert,  presented  by  the  British 
Government,  was  placed  in  the  capable  hands  of 
Commander  Winfield  Schley,  who  had  with  him  George 
Melville  of  Jeannette  fame  as  engineer  of  the  Thetis, 
and  matters  were  conducted  in  quite  a  different  way 
under  much  more  favourable  circumstances.  Schley 
intended  to  find  Greely,  at  all  costs,  and  he  did  so. 
First  he  found  a  cairn  at  Brevoort  Island,  in  which 
were  the  papers  deposited  by  Greely  relating  how  he 
had  had  to  come  south  owing  to  shortness  of  supplies, 
and  how  his  party  were  then — 21st  of  October,  1883— 
encamped  on  the  west  side  of  a  small  neck  of  land 
distant  about  equally  from  Cape  Sabine  and  Cocked 
Hat  Island. 

As  it  was  then  the  22nd  of  June,  1884,  and  they  had 
had  only  forty  days'  complete  rations  to  live  upon, 
Schley  hurried  off  at  once.  Had  he  been  two  days 
later  he  would  have  been  too  late.  There  was  a  tent 
wrecked  by  the  gale,  with  its  pole  toppling  over  and 
only  kept  in  place  by  the  guy  ropes.  Ripping  it  up 
with  a  knife,  a  sight  of  horror  was  disclosed.  On  one 
side,  close  to  the  opening,  with  his  head  towards  the 


RESCUE   OF  GREELY  279 

outside,  lay  what  was  apparently  a  dead  man.  On  the 
opposite  side  was  a  poor  fellow,  alive  but  without  hands 
or  feet,  and  with  a  spoon  tied  to  the  stump  of  his  right 
arm.  Two  others,  seated  on  the  ground,  were  pouring 
something  out  of  a  rubber  bottle  into  a  tin  can. 
Directly  opposite,  on  his  hands  and  knees,  was  a  dark 
man  with  a  long  matted  beard,  in  a  dirty  and  tattered 
dressing-gown  with  a  little  red  skull  cap  on  his  head, 
and  brilliant  staring  eyes.  As  Colwell  appeared,  he 
raised  himself  a  little,  and  put  on  a  pair  of  eyeglasses. 

"  Who  are  you  ? "  asked  Colwell. 

The  man  made  no  answer,  staring  at  him  vacantly. 

"  Who  are  you  ? "  again. 

One  of  the  men  spoke  up.  "That's  the  Major — 
Major  Greely." 

Colwell  crawled  in  and  took  him  by  the  hand,  saying 
to  him,  "  Greely,  is  this  you  ? " 

"  Yes,"  said  Greely  in  a  faint,  broken  voice,  hesitating 
with  his  words  ;  "  yes — seven  of  us  left — here  we  are — 
dying — like  men.  Did  what  I  came  to  do — beat  the 
best  record." 

Near  at  hand  were  ten  graves.  The  bodies,  despite 
Greely 's  remonstrances,  were  taken  up  and  removed 
for  burial  in  the  United  States.  "  Little  could  be  seen 
of  the  condition  of  the  bodies,  as  they  had  been  clothed, 
and  all  that  appeared  was  intact.  In  preparing  them 
subsequently,"  says  Schley,  "it  was  found  that  six  had 
been  cut  and  the  flesh  removed."  One  of  these,  that 
of  a  cavalryman  serving  under  the  assumed  name  of 
Henry,  had  a  bullet  in  it.  He  had  been  shot,  at 
Greely 's  written  order,  "for  stealing  sealskin  thongs, 
the  only  remaining  food." 


280  GREENLAND 

The  next  to  add  to  our  knowledge  of  the  northern 
coast  of  Greenland  was  Robert  E.  Peary,  of  the 
American  Navy,  who  seems  to  have  devoted  his  life 
to  Arctic  exploration.  On  his  first  expedition  in  1886, 
he  penetrated  with  Maigaard  for  some  distance  into 
the  country  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Jakobshavn  as 
a  sort  of  pioneering  venture.  In  1891,  accompanied 
by  his  wife,  when  outward  bound  in  the  Kite  in  the 
Melville  Bay  pack,  he  had  his  leg  broken.  The  ship 
had  been  butting  a  passage  through  the  spongy  sheets 
of  ice  which  had  imprisoned  her,  when  in  going  astern 
a  detached  cake  struck  the  rudder,  jamming  the  tiller 
against  the  wheel-house  where  Peary  was  standing, 
and  pinned  his  leg  long  enough  to  snap  it  between  the 
knee  and  the  ankle.  In  spite  of  this  he  insisted  on 
being  landed  with  the  rest  of  the  party  at  McCormick 
Bay,  a  little  to  the  north  of  Whale  Sound,  where  a 
house  was  built  and  the  winter  spent. 

Making  a  good  recovery,  he  set  off  in  May  to  sledge 
across  North  Greenland  through  snow  and  over  it,  and 
over  snow-arched  crevasses,  often,  in  cloudy  weather 
travelling  in  grey  space  with  nothing  visible  beyond 
a  foot  or  two  around  him.  After  fifty-seven  days' 
journey  to  the  north-east  and  along  Peary  Channel,  the 
northern  boundary  of  the  mainland,  he  left  the  inland 
ice  for  a  strange  country  dotted  with  snowdrifts  and 
mostly  of  red  sandstone,  in  which  murmuring  streams, 
roaring  waterfalls,  and  the  song  of  snow  -  buntings 
formed  an  agreeable  change  from  the  silence  of  the 
desert  of  snow.  Four  days'  hard  labouring  through 
this  brought  him  on  the  4th  of  July  to  Independence 
Bay  on  the  north-east  coast,  where  from  Navy  Cliff, 


To  face  page  280 


PEARY'S  EXPEDITIONS  281 

nearly  four  thousand  feet  high,  he  looked  across  to 
Academy  Land  on  the  other  side  of  the  bay  and  beyond 
it  over  the  region  leading  down  to  the  farthest  north 
of  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  "  It  was  almost  impossible," 
he  says,  "to  believe  that  we  were  standing  upon  the 
northern  shore  of  Greenland  as  we  gazed  from  the 
summit  of  this  bronze  cliff,  with  the  most  brilliant 
sunshine  all  about  us,  with  yellow  poppies  growing 
between  the  rocks  around  our  feet,  and  a  herd  of  musk- 
oxen  in  the  valley  behind  us.  Down  in  that  valley 
I  had  found  an  old  friend,  a  dandelion  in  bloom,  and 
had  seen  the  bullet-like  flight  and  heard  the  energetic 
buzz  of  the  humble-bee." 

Next  year  he  and  his  wife  were  out  again  to  take  up 
their  quarters  it  a  house  they  built  at  Bowdoin  Bay, 
where,  in  September,  their  daughter  was  born.  In 
March,  1894,  he  started  for  another  journey  across 
Greenland,  with  twelve  sledges  and  over  ninety  dogs, 
but  severe  weather  drove  him  back  after  travelling 
some  two  hundred  miles.  Staying  over  that  winter 
instead  of  returning  in  the  Falcon,  he  set  out  in  the 
spring,  and  under  almost  desperate  circumstances 
managed  to  reach  and  leturn  from  Independence  Bay. 

Following  this  came  his  expedition  of  1898,  in  which 
he  spent  four  winters  in  >he  Arctic  regions  and  almost 
met  with  Petersen's  fate  by  a  venturesome  winter 
sledge  journey,  which  resilted  in  the  freezing  of  his 
feet  and  the  loss  of  eight  cf  his  toes.  Travelling  in 
Grinnell  Land  he  proved  beyond  doubt  that  it  was 
continuous  with  Ellesmere  Laxd,  as  had  been  admitted 
by  those  who  named  it.  Folloving  Lockwood's  track, 
he  continued  it  up  to  83°  54',  aloig  Hazen  Land,  prac- 


282  GREENLAND 

tically  completing  the  coast-line  to  Cape  Henry  Parish, 
its  furthest  east,  thus  rounding  the  north  of  the  Green- 
land archipelago,  and  even  there  finding  traces  of 
Eskimos  and  a  fauna  similar  to  that  of  other  Arctic  lands 
hundreds  of  miles  further  south.  And  striking  north- 
wards over  the  sea  from  Cape  Hecla,  with  seven  men  and 
six  dog-sledges,  into  the  breaking,  drifting  pack,  he  made 
a  dash  for  the  Pole  which  ended  at  84°  17'. 

His  next  northern  venture,  though  not  more  remark- 
able, is  destined,  perhaps,  to  be  remembered  longer. 
On  it  he  sighted  the  new  land  away  out  in  the  sea 
north-west  of  Grinnell  Land,  nearer  to  the  Pole  than 
any  other  land  discovered  up  to  then,  and  where  it  was 
expected  to  be.  And  out  over  the  ice  he  went  to 
eclipse  his  1902  record  by  nearly  two  hundred  miles, 
in  the  best  planned  of  all  his  journey SL 

In  July,  1905,  he  had  left  New  York  in  the  Roosevelt, 
a  steamship  of  over  six  hundred  tons  and  more  than 
a  thousand  horse-power,  rigged  complete  as  a  three- 
masted  coasting  schooner,  able  to  aold  her  own  almost 
anywhere  in  the  event  of  her  engines  becoming  useless. 
One  hundred  and  eighty-two  feet  in  length,  thirty-five 
and  a  half  in  beam,  and  sixteen  and  a  quarter  in  depth  ; 
sharp  in  the  bow  and  rounded  amidships ;  treble  in 
framing  and  double  in  planking,  with  sides  thirty 
inches  thick,  twelve  feet  of  deadwood  in  her  bow,  and 
six  feet  of  false  keels  and  kelsons,  she  was  specially 
built  for  the  expedition  as  the  strongest  and  most 
powerful  vessel  ever  sert  on  Arctic  service,  and  was 
launched  on  the  23r(?  of  May,  1905,  Mrs.  Peary 
naming  her  by  smashng  a  block  of  ice  against  her 
ironclad  stem. 


VOYAGE  OF  THE  "ROOSEVELT" 
A  month  out  from  New  York,  the  Roosevelt  left 
Etah  laden  deep  with  coal  from  the  Eric  that  had 
awaited  her  there,  and  having  on  board  over  fifty 
Eskimos,  of  both  sexes  and  all  sizes,  and  some  two 
hundred  Eskimo  dogs.  Leaving  a  reserve  of  provisions 
at  Bache  Peninsula,  she  worked  up  through  open 
water  and  occasional  ice  to  Richardson  Bay,  where 
the  pack  looked  so  threatening  that  Peary  literally 
rammed  his  way  across  to  the  eastern  side,  and  so  con- 
tinued northwards.  When  off  Cape  Lupton  the  ship 
received  such  rough  treatment  that  the  rudder  was 
twisted  and  the  head-bands  and  tiller-rods  broken,  as 
she  ground  along  the  face  of  the  ice-foot  "with  a 
motion  and  noise  like  that  of  a  railway-car  which  has 
left  the  rails  " ;  but  this  was  the  only  time  she  was  in 
serious  danger  during  her  most  fortunate  run.  Resting 
for  six  days  in  Newman  Bay  to  repair  damages  and 
make  ready  for  a  final  effort,  she  was  headed  westward 
to  Grinnell  Land  through  the  floes,  and  after  a  con- 
tinuous battle  of  thirty-five  hours,  reached  the  ice-foot 
at  Cape  Sheridan,  a  little  north  of  the  old  winter 
quarters  of  the  Alert,  and  found  her  wintering  place, 
like  her,  just  as  the  Polar  pack  closed  in  against  the 
shore.  The  endeavour  had  been  to  lay  up  in  Porter 
Bay,  twenty-seven  miles  further  north,  but  the  state 
of  the  ice  made  this  impossible. 

Provisions  were  plentiful,  as  no  less  than  two  hundred 
and  fifty  musk  oxen  had  been  shot  by  the  1st  of  Novem- 
ber, and  there  were  numbers  of  hares  and  several  herds 
of  the  white  reindeer  first  mentioned  by  Hudson  in  his 
second  voyage  three  hundred  years  ago.  During  the 
very  mild  winter  eighty  of  the  dogs  died,  and  when 


284  GREENLAND 

sledging  began  only  twenty  teams  of  six  each  were 
available.  The  plan  of  the  northern  advance  over  the 
ice  was  to  divide  it  into  sections  of  about  fifty  miles 
each,  with  snow  houses  at  each  station,  the  nearest 
station  being  supplied  from  the  base  and  supplying  the 
next,  and  so  on,  thus  keeping  up  an  unbroken  line  of 
communication  gradually  extending  nearer  to  the  Pole, 
the  sledges  working  backwards  and  forwards,  outwards 
laden  and  inwards  empty,  between  station  and  station 
along  the  line. 

The  land  was  left  at  Point  Moss,  north-west  of  Cape 
Joseph  Henry.  At  84°  38'  a  lead  in  the  pack  stopped 
the  way  for  six  days  until  the  young  ice  was  thick  enough 
to  bear,  and  forty  miles  further  north  the  vanguard 
drifted  east  some  seventy  miles  during  a  storm  for 
another  six  days.  On  the  20th  of  April  a  region  of 
much  open  water  was  reached,  and  from  midnight  to 
noon  next  day  the  last  effort  was  made  by  Peary, 
Henson,  and  a  small  party  of  Eskimos,  the  farthest 
north,  87°  6',  being  attained  and  immediately  left  in  a 
rapid  retreat  for  safety. 

Thus  Peary  went  nearer  to  the  Pole  than  Cagni  by 
thirty-two  minutes  or  thirty-seven  statute  miles,  both 
being  stopped  by  water  with  apparently  similar  condi- 
tions ahead  of  them.  What  the  conditions  may  be 
along  the  intervening  two  hundred  miles  from  Peary's 
farthest  nobody  knows ;  but  although  a  good  many 
things  may  happen  between  London  and  York,  which 
is  about  the  same  distance,  there  is  good  reason  for 
supposing  that,  even  if  there  be  land  somewhere,  the 
road  is  over  a  sea  more  or  less  packed  with  ice  which 
is  never  without  its  channels. 


MOXON'S   MARINER  285 

One  thing  is  clear :  the  attainment  of  the  Pole  is  a 
matter  of  money.  Given  the  funds,  the  men  and  the 
dogs,  and  the  ships,  boats,  sledges,  and  other  things 
will  be  forthcoming,  and  the  journey  accomplished,  not 
by  a  rush,  but  on  some  systematic  station-to-station 
plan ;  though  it  is  not  impossible  that  it  may  be  done 
by  chance  in  some  exceptional  year,  for  the  climate  of 
the  north  is  variable  and  has  a  wider  range  of  tempera- 
ture than  that  of  Britain  in  its  good  years  and  its  bad 
years. 

Let  us  hope  there  may  be  land  at  the  exact  spot,  for 
then  the  position  can  be  checked  at  leisure,  and  there 
will  be  no  doubt  of  its  having  been  reached.  Joseph 
Moxon,  Hydrographer  to  the  King,  in  1652  met  at 
Amsterdam  a  sailor  of  a  Greenland  ship  which  "  went 
not  out  to  fish  that  summer,  but  only  to  take  in  the 
lading  of  the  whole  fleet  to  bring  it  to  an  early 
market" — in  other  words,  to  act  as  a  carrier — which 
ship,  before  the  whaling  fleet  had  caught  enough  to 
lade  her,  had  by  order  of  the  Company  sailed  to  the 
North  Pole  and  back  again,  and  even  two  degrees 
beyond  it ;  no  land  seen,  no  ice,  and  the  weather  as  it 
was  in  summer-time  at  Amsterdam. 

A  sailor's  yarn  told  in  a  tavern?  Only  this  and 
nothing  more,  perhaps ;  though  a  good  many  things 
were  kept  dark  in  the  whaling  trade  as  in  other  trades. 
But  if  there  had  been  an  island  at  the  Pole  we  might 
eventually  have  been  able  to  verify  that  ancient 
mariner's  tale. 


INDEX 


Abruzzi,  Duke  of,  The,  76 

Academy  Land,  281 

Actinia  Haven,  87 

Advance,  The,  183,  236 

Aid,  The,  218,  219 

Akaitcho,  150,  156,  160 

Alaska,  134 

Aldrich,  Pelham,  255 

Alert,  H.M.S.,  248,  278 

Alexander,  The,  179 

Alexander,  Cape,  234,  235 

Alexandra  Land,  75 

Alexandria,  H.M.S.,  179 

Alfred  Ernest,  Cape,  257 

Ameralik  Fiord,  261 

America,  The  Norse  discovery  of,  3 

Amundsen,  Roald,  178,  214 

Ancylonema  nordenskioeldii,  264 

Anderson  Falls,  The,  163 

Andre'e,  S.  A.,  104 

Anjou,  P.  F.,  108 

Ann  Prances,  The,  220 

Antelope,  126 

Archangel,  6 

Archer,  Colin,  91 

Archer  Fiord,  250,  257 

Archer,  R.,  257 

Arctic,  The,  247 

Arctic  Search  Expedition,  The  first,  7 

Assistance,  H.M.S.,  183,  184 

Atlassof,  128 

Augustus  the  Eskimo,  157, 159,  160 

Auk,  Cape,  69 

Auleitsivik  Fiord,  263 

Aurora  Borealis,  The,  67 

Austin,  Horatio,  183 

Austria  Sound,  68 

Avigtait,  264 

Baal's  River,  260 

Back,  George,  38, 149, 151, 156, 160, 

203 

Baden-Powell,  Sir  George,  105 
Baffin,  William,  15,  233 
Baffin  Land,  233 


Banks  Land,  172,  176,  182 

Baranoif  Cape,  85 

Barents  Bay,  49 

Barents,  Willem,  9,  49 

Barnacle  Goose,  The,  12 

Barren  Grounds,  The,  156,  159 

Barrington,  The  Hon.  Daines,  29 

Barrow  Point,  137,  167,  273 

Barrow,  Sir  John,  178 

Barrow  Strait,  180 

Bathurst  Island,  180,  206 

Bear,  Black,  110 

Bear  Island,  12 

Bear,  Polar,  11,  12,  23,  27,  28,  62, 

73,  74,  88,  99,  186,  238,  267 
Bear,  The,  278 
Beaufort  Sea,  The,  173 
Beaumont,  Lewis  Anthony,  257 
Beechey,  Cape,  159 
Beech ey,  Frederick  William,  35, 137 
Beechey  Island,  180,  183,  186,  206 
Belanger,  151 
Belcher,  Edward,  184 
Bellot,  Joseph  Rene',  183,  207 
Bellot  Strait,  197 
Bennet,  Stephen,  12 
Bennett  Island,  107,  117,  126 
Bering  Strait,  85,  127 
Bering,  Veit,  130 
Berry,  Captain,  141 
Bessels,  Emil,  245 
Best,  George,  220 
Best's  Bulwark,  219 
Bille,  Cape,  262 
Bird  Cape,  12 
Birds,  12,  88, 113, 114, 141, 160, 172, 

181,  228,  239,  258,  280 
Bismarck,  Cape,  268 
Bjarni  discovers  America,  2 
Bjelkof  Island,  107 
Blossom,  H.M.S.,  137 
Boat  Extreme,  167 
Bolscheretzkoi,  131 
Bona  Confidentia,  The,  5 

„     Esperanza,  The,  5 


287 


288 


INDEX 


Booth,  Felix,  194 
Boothia,  190 
Borough,  Steven,  6 

„         William,  8 
Bosekop,  273 
Bounty  Cape,  180 
Bowdoin  Bay,  281 
Bowen,  Port,  193 
Bradley,  Thomas,  4 
Brainard,  D.  L.,  276 
Brattelid,  261 
Brentford  Bay,  197,  207 
British  Channel,  75,  99 
Brorok,  Cape,  82 
Brown,  Robert,  265 
Brunei,  Olivier,  9 
Brunn,  Mount,  71 
Biichan,  David,  33,  157 
Buchan  Island,  211 
Buddington,  J.  M.,  245 
Bulun,  124 
Bunge,  A.,  126 
Burrough  Strait,  7 
Bush,  Henry,  129 
Butcher's  Island,  217 
Byam  Martin  Island,  180 
Bylot,  Robert,  233 

Cabot,  Sebastian,  4,  5 
Cagni,  Umberto,  77,  284 
Cambridge  Bay,  177 
Camden  Bay,  177 
Carcass,  H.M.S.,  29 
Carlsen,  Elling,  44,  58 

„         Olaf,  65 
Castor,  The  (boat),  166 
Castor  and  Pollux  River,  169,  208 
Cathay  Company,  The,  218 
Catherine,  The  Empress,  130 
Cator,  Lieutenant,  183 
Cavendish  thermometer,  The,  30 
Chamisso  Island,  138 
Chancellor,  Richard,  5 
Char,  44,  258 
Charing  Cross,  220 
Charles's  Foreland,  Prince,  14 
Chelagskoi,  Cape,  108 
Chelyuskin,  Cape,  84 
Cherie  Island,  12 
Chippewyan,  Fort,  147,  152,  166 
Christian  Land,  King,  185 
Chukches,  The,  89,  115,  127 
Chvoinof,  106 
Clavering  Island,  268 
Clerke,  Charles,  136 
Clio  borealis,  268 


Coal,  45,  249,  258 

Collinson,  Richard,  171,  175 

Columbia,  Cape,  257 

Columbus  visits  Iceland,  3 

Colwell,  J.  C.,  279 

Commander  Islands,  The,  135 

Conferences,  The  Polar,  273 

Confidence,  Fort,  167 

Conger,  Fort,  273 

Constitution,  Cape,  236 

Conway,  William  Martin,  47 

Cook,  James,  90,  136 

Cookery-of-Haarlem,  25 

Coppermine  River,  147, 153, 159, 167 

Cornwall,  North,  185 

Cornwallis  Island,  180,  206 

Coronation  Gulf,  155 

Countess  of  Warwick   Island,   219, 

222 

Crow's  Nest,  The,  30 
Crozier,  F.  R.  M.,  205,  212 
Cumberland  Gulf,  227 

Dall,  W.  H.,  142 

Danes  Island,  104 

Danish  Sound,  185 

Davis,  John,  9,  223 

Davis  Strait,  227 

Dealy  Island,  174,  180 

Dease,  Peter  Warren,  158,  165 

Dease  River,  158, 159 
„      Strait,  168 

Dee,  Dr.  John,  223 

De  Haven,  Lieutenant,  183 
„  Long,  G.  W.,116 

Deschnef,  85 

Des  Voeux,  C.  F.,212 

Devon,  North,  180 

Diana,  The,  44 

Dickson  Harbour,  85,  273 

Discovery,  H.M.S.  (Cook),  136 
„  '  „  (Nares),  248 
„  The  (Hudson),  233 

Discovery  Harbour,  250 

Distillation  apparatus,  The,  30 

Dolphin,  The  (boat),  157,  158 

Dolphin  and  Union  Strait,  159 

Dorothea,  H.M.S.,  33 

Dove  Bay,  268 

Drummond,  Thomas,  157,  160 

Dudley,  Ambrose,  216 

Dudley  Digges  Cape,  234 

Durfourth,  Captain,  5 

Dyer,  Cape,  227 

East  Cape,  132 


INDEX 


289 


Ebierbing  and  Tookoolito,  244 

Edam,  Land  of,  268 

Edge,  Thomas,  15 

Edge's  Island,  15 

Edward  Bonaventure,  The,  5 

Egede,  Hans,  259 
„       Paul,  260 

Eira,  The,  72 

Elizabeth,  The,  232 

Ellen,  The,  231 

Ellesmere  Land,  235,  281 

Ellis,  John,  225 

Elmwood,  103 

Elson,  Thomas,  137,  159 

Elson  Bay,  137 

Endeavour,  The  (boat),  41 

English  Chief,  147 

Entada  bean,  The,  44 

Enterprise,  Fort,  150 

Enterprise,  H.M.S.,  171,  175 
„          The  (boat),  41 

Erebus,  H.M.S.,  171,  183,  205 

Eric,  The,  283 

Eric  the  Red,  2,  261 

Ermine,  188 

Eskimo  relics,  277 

Eskimos  first  met  with,  217 

Eskimos,  Migration  of  the,  3 

„  3,  139,  140,  145,  152,  154, 
157,  158,  159,  167,  168,  176,  192, 
198,  200,  207,  211,  217,  222,  225, 
229,  237,  244,  246,  258,  260,  277, 
282,  283 

Etah,  283 

Evensen,  Captain,  83 

Exeter  Sound,  227 

Express,  The,  87 

Falcon,  The,  281 

Farewell,  Cape,  271 

Fedotof,  129 

Felix  Harbour,  197 

Felix,  The,  182 

Fern,  The  first  Spitsbergen,  43 

Finlay  Island,  185 

Finlayson  Islands,  177 

Fish  River,  The  Great,  160,  169 

Fishes,  153,  176,  258 

FitzJames,  James,  212 

Fligely,  Cape,  70,  76 

Floeberg  Beach,  250 

Flora,  Cape,  72,  75,  103 

Forsyth,  C.  C.,  183 

Fossils,  43,  107,  126,  173,  266 

Foulke  Harbour,  239 

Fox,  Arctic,  23,  53 


Fox,  Black,  144 

„     Silver-grey,  144 
Fox,  The,  208 
Fram,  The,  91,  185 
Franklin,  Fort,  158 
Franklin,  John,  33,  149,   156,  195, 
205 

„         Lady,  209,  235 
Franklin  Record,  The,  212 

„        Strait,  206 
Franz  Josef  Fiord,  269 

„     Land,  62,  64 
Fraser,  The,  87 
Frazer,  Cape,  236 
Frederick  Jackson  Island,  99 
Frederiksdal,  271 
Frobisher  Bay,  216 
Frobisher,  Martin,  215 
Frozen  Strait,  190 
Fur-seal,  The,  135 
Fury  Beach,  193,  202 

„    and  Hecla  Strait,  193 
Fury,  H.M.S.,  191 

Gabriel,  The  (Bering),  132 

„  „     (Frobisher),  216,  218 

Gabriel  Islands,  The,  221 

Gardiner,  Charles,  59 

Garry,  Fort,  165 

George,  The,  8 

Germania,  The,  267 

Gibraltar  Bay,  Battle  of,  58 

Giffard,  G.  A.,  255 

Gilbert,  Adrian,  223,  229 
„       Humphrey,  215,  221 

Gilbert  Sound,  225 

Gjoa,  The,  214 

Gjoahaven,  214 

Glaciers,  16,  46,  68,  189,  242,  237, 
244,  264 

Glow-worm,  The,  59 

Godfrey,  William,  236 

Godthaab,  91,  225,  273 

Godthaab  Fiord,  260 

Gore,  Graham,  206,  212 

Graah,  W.  A.,  266 

Graham  Island,  185 

Greely,  A.  W.,  272 

Greenland,  2,  14,  259 

Greenland  Archipelago,  The,  282 

Greenland,  East,  12 

Greyhound,  The,  10 

Griffith  Island,  180 

Grinnell  Land,  236,  277,  281 

Griper,  H.M.S.,  179,202,  267 

Gulf  Stream,  The,  13,  26,  44 


290 


INDEX 


Gundersen,  Captain,  59 
Gunnbiorn  discovers  Greenland,  2 

Hakluyt  Headland,  14 

Hall  Basin,  245 

Hall,  C.  F.,  213,  222,  244 

„     Christopher,  216 

„     James,  233 
Hall  Island,  68 
Hall's  Rest,  246 
Hamilton,  Cape,  174 
Hans  Hendrik,  237,  245,  249 
Hansa,  The,  267 

Hare,  172,  176,  181,  186,  188,  283 
Hare  Fiord,  186 
Hartstene  Bay,  241 
Hayes,  I.  I.,  237 
Hazen,  Lake,  277 
Hazen  Land,  281 
Hearne,  Samuel,  147 
Hecla,  Cape,  282 
Hecla,  H.M.S.,  40,  179,  191 
Hedenstrom,  107 
Heemskerck,  Jacob  van,  10,  49 
Heer,  Oswald,  266 
Hegemann,  Captain,  269 
Heiberg  Land,  Axel,  185 
Helluland,  3 
Hendon,  North,  197 
Hendrik,  Hans,  237,  245,  249 
Hendriksen  Sound,  185 
Henrietta  Island,  107 
Henson,  C.,  284 
Hepburn,  John,  156,  207 
Herald,  H.M.S.,  138 
Herald  Island,  116,  141 
Herschel,  Cape,  169,  212 
Himkoff,  Alexis,  26 
Hinlopen  Strait,  17 
Hobson,  W.  R.,  208,  212 
Hohenlohe  Island,  68 
Hood  River,  The,  155 
Hood,  Robert,  149 
Hooper,  William  Hulme,  140 
Hope,  Fort,  204 
Hope,  The  (Young),  75 

„       „    (Egede),260 
Howgate,  H.  W.,  274 
Hudson  Bay,  62 
Hudson,  Henry,  13,  15,  60 
Hudson  River,  The,  61 

„       Strait,  4,  62,  221,  232 
Hudson's  Bay  Company,  The,  146 

„         Touches,  14 
Humboldt  Glacier,  The,  237 
Hyaqua  shell,  The,  145 


Icebergs,  35,  230,  264 

Ice-drill,  The,  30 

Ice  Haven,  49 

Iceland,  2 

Icy  Cape,  136,  137 

Igloolik,  193 

Igloos,  198,  211 

Ikmallik,  200 

Independence  Bay,  280 

Inglefield,  E.  A.,  235 

Ingolf  lands  in  Iceland,  2 

Insects,  192,  281 

International    Polar    Stations,   The. 

272 

Intrepid,  H.M.S.,  183 
Investigator,  H. M.S.,  171 
Irkaipii,  89,  136 
Irving,  John,  212,  213 
Isabel,  The,  235 
Isabella,  Cape,  235 
Isabella,  The,  179,  202 
Isachsen,  Cape,  186 
Isbjorn,  The,  64 

Jackman,  Charles,  8,  60 
Jackson,  Frederick  G.,  75,  103 
Jakobshavn,  266,  280 
Jan  Mayen,  14,  273 
Japanese,  The,  129,  133 
Jason,  The,  261 
Jeannette,  The,  91,  116,  141 
Jeannette  Island,  107 
Jenkinson,  Anthony,  7,  215 
Jesup  Land,  185 
Joe  and  Hannah,  244 
Johansen,  F.  H.,  96 
John,  The,  196 
Jones  Sound,  234 
Joseph  Henry,  Cape,  284 
Journal,  The,  introduced,  5 
Judith,  The,  219 
Julianehaab,  266 

Kalutunah,  237 
Kamchatka,  129 
Kane,  E.  K.,  236 
Kane  Sea,  The,  235 
Kara  Sea,  The,  7 
Karmakul  Bay,  273 
Kay,  E.  C.  Lister,  59 
Kellett,  Henry,  138,  174, 184 
Kendall,  E.  N.    156 
Kennedy  Channel,  236 
Kennedy,  Port,  211 
Kennedy,  William,  183,  207 
King,  Richard,  160 


INDEX 


291 


Kingua,  273 

King  William  Land,  163,  214 
Kite,  The,  280 
Knight,  John,  146 
Kod-lun-arn,  223 
Kola,  9,  12,  57 
Koldewey,  Karl,  267 
Kolguiev,  8 
Kolyuchin  Bay,  90 
Kompakova,  The,  129 
Kotelnoi  Island,  106,  117 
Kraechoj,  127 
Krusenstern,  The,  196 
Kruzof  Island,  134 
Ku  Mark  Surka,  122 
Kuriles,  The,  133 
Kutchins,  The,  145 

Labrador,  Discovery  of,  4 

Labrets,  145 

Lady  Franklin,  183 

Lady  Franklin  Bay,  250,  272 

Lambert  Land,  268 

Lament,  James,  44 

Lancaster  Sound,  179,  180,  234 

Lands  Lokk,  186 

Laptef,  Dmitri,  85 

„       Khariton,  84 
Leif  lands  in  America,  3 
Lemming,  188 
Lena,  The,  87 
Lena  Delta,  The,  106 
Liakhoff,  89,  106 
Liakhoff  Island,  89,  126 
Lichens,  156 
Lifeboat  Cove,  247 
Linschoten,  Van,  10 
Lion,  The  (boat),  157,  158 
Little  Table  Island,  41 
Lock,  Michael,  61,  216 
Lockwood,  James  B.,  272,  275 
Lockwood  Island,  276 
Log,  The,  introduced,  5 
Long,  G.  W.  De,  116 

„      Thomas,  141 
Loschkin,  S.,  62 
Louis  Napoleon,  Cape,  235 
Ludlow,  62 

Lunar  at  sea,  The  first,  17 
Lundstrom,  85 
Lutke,  63 

Lutwidge,  Skeffington,  29 
Lyon,  George  Francis,  191,  202 

Mackenzie,  Alexander,  147 
Mackenzie  River,  Discovery  of,  148 


Macintoshes,  The  first,  157 

M'Clintock,  F.  L.,  184,  208,  248,  268 

M'Clintock,  Cape,  99 

M'Clure,  Robert  Le  M.,  171,  177 

M'Cormick  Bay,  280 

McKay,  James,  161 

Magnet,  The  (boat),  204 

Magnetic  North  Pole,  214 

Mahlemut  labret,  The,  145 

Mammals,  Fossil,  126 

Mammoth,  107,  115,  126 

Markham,  A.  H.,  247,  249 

Markland,  3 

Marten  skins,  144 

Martens,  F.,  25 

Mary  Harmsworth,  Cape,  75 

Mary  Margaret,  The,  15 

Matiuschkin,  108 

Matthew,  The,  4 

Matty  Island,  201 

Matyushin  Shar,  60 

May,  William  H.,  256 

Melville  Bay,  234 

Melville,  G.  W.,  117 

Melville  Island,  174,  176,  180 

„        Peninsula,  192,  205 
Merchant  Adventurers,  The,  5 
Mercury,  The,  9 
Mercy  Bay,  174 
Mermaid,  The,  229 
Meta  Incognita,  219 
Michael,  The,  216 
Middendorf  Glacier,  The,  68 
Middleton,  Christopher,  190 
Mistaken  Streight,  221 
Moloi,  106 

Montreal  Island,  162,  169,  206,  212 
Moons,  Mock,  151 
Moonshine,  The,  224,  229 
Moore,  Thomas  E.  L.,  138 
Moose-hunting,  144 
Moravians,  The,  261 
Morton,  William,  236,  245 
Moss,  E.  L.,  254 
Moss  Point,  284 
Mossel  Bay,  44,  45,  273 
Moxon,  Joseph,  285 
Murchison,  Cape,  197 
Murchison  River,  208 
Muscovy  Company,  The,  6,  13,  15, 

17,  60,  233 
Musk  ox,  126,  172,  181,  188,  248, 

267,  283 

Nai,  Cornells,  9 

Nancy  Dawson,  The,  139 


292 


INDEX 


Nansen,  Fridtjof,  91,  261 

Nares,  G.  S.,  248 

Narwhal,  31,  188,  219 

Nassau,  Cape,  9 

Navy  Cliff,  280 

Nelson,  Horatio,  29 

Neptune,  The,  277 

Newfoundland,  Discovery  of,  4 

Newman  Bay,  283 

New  Siberian  Islands,  The,  88,  106 

Nindemann,  118 

Nordenskiold,  Adolf  Erik,   43,   44, 

85,  263 
Noros,  118 

Norsemen  discover  America,  2 
Northbrook  Island,  100 
North  Cape,  The,  6,  89,  136 

„      East  Land,  26 
North-East  Passage,  The,  5,  85 
Northern  Passage,  The,  5 
North  Pole,  The  (boat),  204 
North  Pole,  Magnetic,  214 
North  Star,  The,  229 
North  Water,  The,  234 
North- West  Fur  Company,  The,  147 

„  Passage,  The,  5 

Norton  Sound,  142 
Nova  Kholmogory,  9 
Novaya  Zemlya,  7,  9,  49 
Nulato,  142 
Ny  Herrnhut,  261 

Obi,  The,  85 

Observation,  Mount,  172 

Ochotsk,  129 

Ommanney,  Erasmus,  183 

Omoki,  The,  115 

Ooligbuck  the  Eskimo,  157,  158, 168 

Oraefa,  Mount,  2 

Orleans,  Duke  of,  268 

Osborn,  Sherard,  183 

Ostiaks,  The,  115 

Otaria,  The,  105 

Pachtussoff,  63 

Pandora,  The,  116 

Parhelia,  152 

Parker  Bay,  171 

Parr,  Alfred  A.  C.,  255 

Parry,  William  Edward,  40, 178, 179, 

191,  234 

Parry  Falls,  The,  163 
Patience,  The,  233 
Patrick  Island,  Prince,  174,  184 
Pavy,  O.,  275 
Payer,  Julius,  64 


Peary  Channel,  280 

Peary,  Robert  E.,  185,  186,  280 

Peel  Sound,  206 

Pellham,  Edward,  18 

Pelly  Bay,  207 

„     Point,  171 
Pendulum  Island,  267 
Penny  Strait,  206 
Penny,  William,  183 
Pet,  Arthur,  7,  60 
Pet  Strait,  8 
Peter  the  Great,  130 
Petermann  Fiord,  248 
Petermann,  Mount,  269 
Petersen  Bay,  214 
Petersen,  C.,  208 
Petropaulovsk,  134 
Phipps,  The  Hon.  Constantino  John, 

29 

Pirn,  Bedford,  174 
Pioneer,  H.M.S.,  183 
Plants,  43,  88,  91,   113,   114,   156, 

192,  248,  264,  266,  281 
Plover,  H.M.S.,  138 
Point  Lake,  153 

„     Victory,  206 
Polar   Stations,   The    International, 

272,  273 

Polaris,  The,  245 
Polhem,  The,  44 
Pollux,  The  (boat),  166 
Poole,  Jonas,  13,  15 
Porcupine  River,  The,  142 
Pospeloff,  62 

Pribylov  Islands,  The,  135 
Prince  Albert,  The,  183,  207 
Prince  of  Wales,  Cape,  136 
Prince  of  Wales  Strait,  172,  176 
Proeven,  The,  85 
Pronchistschef,  85 
Proteus,  The,  274,  278 
Protococcus  nivalis,  192 
Prudhoe  Land,  234 
Pullen,  W.  J.  S.,  139 

Quennerstedt,  A.,  43 

Racehorse,  H.M.S.,  29 
Racer,  The,  183 
Rae,  Fort,  273 
Rae,  John,  170,  204,  207 
Rae  Strait,  208,  214 
Raleigh,  Mount,  227 
Rat  River,  The,  142 
Ravenscraig,  The,  247 
Rawlings  Bay,  241 


INDEX 


293 


Rawson,  Wyatt,  257 

Red  snow,  192 

Regent  Inlet,  Prince,  180 

Regina,  The,  59 

Reikjavik  founded,  2 

Reindeer,  10,  18,  23,  27,  28,  60, 109, 

150,  169,  172,  174,  176,  181,  188, 

267,  283 

Reindeer,  White,  61,  283 
Reliance,  Fort,  160 
Reliance,  The  (boat),  158 
Rensselaer  Harbour,  235,  236 
Repulse  Bay,  191,  204,  207 
Resolute,  H.M.S.,  175,  183,  184 
Resolution,  H.M.S.,  136 

The  (whaler),  31 
Return  Reef,  159,  166 
Rhinoceros,  126 

Richardson,  John,  149,  156,  170 
Richthofen  Peak,  71 
Rijp,  Jan  Corneliszoon,  11,  57 
Ringnes  Islands,  The,  185 
Riteiibenk,  249 
Robeson  Channel,  245 
Rocky  Mountains  first  crossed,  149 
Rodger s,  The,  141 
Roosevelt,  The,  282 
Rosmysslof,  62 
Ross,  James  Clark,  41,  181,  201 

„     John,  179,  182,  194,  234 
Rudolf  Island,  Prince,  75,  76,  82 
Rudson's  Point,  14 
Russell,  Cape,  235 
Ryder,  Lieut.,  266 

Sabine,  Edward,  181,  267 
^Sabine,  Cape,  235 
Sable,  The,  135 
Sagastyr  Island,  273 
St.  Elias,  Cape,  134 

„         Mount,  136 
St.  Lawrence  Bay,  141 

„  Island,  132 

St.  Paul,  The,  134 
St.  Peter,  The,  134 
Salmo  arcturus,  258 
Salmon  trout,  176 
Salutation,  The,  18 
Samoyeds,  The,  10,  115 
Sanderson's  Hope,  232 
Sanderson,  William,  224 
Sannikof,  107 
Schley,  Winfield  S.,  278 
Schonau  Island,  70 
Schwatka,  Frederick,  213 
Scoresby,  William,  the  elder,  30 


Scoresby,  William,  the  younger,  31, 

129,  266 

Seal,  The  Fur,  135 
Seals,  31,  88 
Sea-otter,  The,  135 
Searchthrift,  The,  7 
Semonovski  Island,  117 
Serdze  Kamen,  Cape,  90,  132,  136 
Seven  Islands,  The,  40 
Shackleton,  Cape,  233 
Shantar  Islands,  The,  130 
Sheathing  for  ships  introduced,  5 
Shedden,  Robert,  139 
Sheridan,  Cape,  283 
Siberia,  84,  106 
Siberian  Islands,  The,  88,  106 
Silver  Bay,  63 
Simmons  Peninsula,  188 
Simpson,  Sir  George,  165 

„         Thomas,  165 
Simpson  Strait,  168,  206,  214 
Sinclair,  George,  166 
Sirovatskof,  107 
Sitka  Sound,  134 

Sledges  and  sledge-work,  184,  252 
Smeerenberg,  24 
Smith,  Benjamin  Leigh,  44,  72 
Smith  Sound,  234,  235 
Snow,  William  Parker,  183 
Snow  houses,  198,  211 
Sodankyla,  273 
Sofia,  The,  44 
Somerset  House,  202 
Somerset,  North,  180 
Sonntag,  August,  242 
Sophia,  The,  183 
Spangberg,  Martin,  131 
Spinks,  Robert,  37,  158 
Spitsbergen,  12,  15,  16,  18,  24,  104 
Steamship,  The  first  Arctic,  194 
Stella  Polare,  The,  76 
Sterlegof,  Cape,  85 
Stoat,  188 
Stolbovoi,  107 
Stuxberg,  85 

Sunshine,  The,  224,  229,  232 
Sverdrup,  Otto,  104,  185,  261 
Svjatoi  Nos,  89 

Tanana,  The,  144 

Tananas,  The,  145 

Tegetthoff,  The,  64 

Teplitz  Bay,  69,  77 

Terror,  H.M.S.,  171,  183,  203,  205 

Thaddeus  Island,  107,  117 

Thames,  The,  87 


294 

Thermometer,  The  deep-sea,  30 
Thetis,  The,  278 
Thirkill,  Launcelot,  4 
Thomasine,  The,  16 
Thorne,  Robert,  5 
Tiger,  126 
Tigress,  The,  247 
Toll,  Baron  E.,  126 
Torell,  Otto,  43 
Trent,  H.M.S.,  33 
Treurenberg  Bay,  40 
Tripe-de-roche,  156 
Tschirikof,  Alexei,  131 
Tundra,  The,  86,  113 
Turnagain,  Point,  155,  167 
Tyndall  Glacier,  244 

Umivik,  262 

Union,  The  (boat),  157,  158 
United  States,  The,  239 
Upernivik,  232 

Valorous,  H.M.S.,  248 
Veer,  Gerrit  de,  10,  49 
Vega,  The,  87 
Victoria,  Cape,  211 
Victoria  Land,  168 

„       Sea,  Queen,  75 

„       Strait,  206 
Victory,  The,  194 
Victory,  Point,  212 
Vinland,  3 

Vlamingh,  Willem  de,  62 
Vrangel',  Ferdinand,  108 


INDEX 


Wager  River,  190 
Waigatz  Island,  7 
Wainwright  Inlet,  139 
Walden  Island,  40 
Walker  Bay,  176 
Walnut  Shell,  The  (boat),  157,  159 
Walrus,  12,  13,  20,  31,  34,  57,  73, 
82,  88,  93,  101 


Walsingham,  Francis,  224,  229,  231 
Washington  Irving  Island,  250 
Welden,  Captain,  13 
Wellington  Channel,  180 
Wentzel,  150,  151,  154 
West  England,  220 
Weyprecht,  K.,  64,  272 
Whale  fishery,  The,  15,  17 
Whale,  Greenland,  14,  15,  31,  265 
Whale  Island,  148 
Whale,  White,  88,  148,  188 
Whaling  trade  begins,  15 
White  Man's  Island,  223 
White  Sea,  The,  6 
White  Shirt,  2 
Whymper,  Edward,  266 

„  Frederick,  142 

Wiggins,  Joseph,  87 
Wijde  Bay,  17 
Wilberforce  Falls,  The,  155 
Wilczek  Island,  66 
William  Land,  King,  163,  214 
William,  The,  8 
Willoughby,  Sir  Hugh,  5 
Windward,  The,  76,  103 
Winter  Harbour,  174,  181 

„       Island,  192 
Winthmt,  The,  10 
Wollaston  Land,  158 
Wolstenholme,  Cape,  234 
Wolverine,  144 
Women  Islands,  The,  233 
Wrangell,  Ferdinand  von,  108 
Wrangell  Island,  116,  141 

Yakuts,  The,  115 
Yalmal,  85 
Yenesei,  The,  85 
Ymer,  The,  87 

Young,  Allen,  75,  116,  208,  213 
Young's  Foreland,  14 
Yugor  Strait,  8 
Yukon,  Fort,  142,  144 
„        The,  142 


PLYMOUTH 
WILLIAM   BRENDON  AND  SON,   LTD. 


